How I Spent My Vacation
by TheGirlWithFarTooManyIdeas
Summary: "You just violated every law of physics, including conservation of mass!" "...You're sitting next to a god, and I'M the weird one?" Ginny just wanted a break from the aftermath of the second blood war. But when her "prime tourist spot" (thanks, Hermione) is destroyed by a homicidal robot, she goes alongside the Avengers to save the world. Someone has to! Ginny/Pietro, others TBD
1. Chapter 1

**How I Spent My Vacation**

 **Tyene: Your denial of certain facts is cute sometimes.**

 **Wanda: (shoves her) I'm not in denial. I'm a writer. Hello everyone, welcome to my latest shipfic! This one goes AU during and after the Battle for Hogwarts in DH for the HP universe, and during Thor 2 for the MCU (though that won't come up until later.) I do not own either the Avengers (sadly) or Harry Potter.**

 **Chapter 1: From One World to Another**

"...You're all clear, miss. Baggage claim is down to your left at the end of the hall," The customs agent said, stamping the paper before handing it and the passport back to the lovely young redhead who stood before him. She looked distinctly out of her element; she thanked him for the extra directions and hurried off.

It was fairly evident that she hadn't gone travelling before, though the people passing by wouldn't have known how true that was. None of her family had ever used such a transportation system, instead preferring to transport themselves through other, quicker means. However, this young lady was attempting to stay under the radar and wasn't particularly interested in returning to a society she had come to loath with a burning passion, so she had decided to attempt another route.

She was beginning to regret that decision, having lost her paperwork twice and gotten stopped during screening for neglecting to take her shoes off or removing the laptop her friend had given her for contact and other such things from her bag. Then the flight had been delayed, and now she had stood in line for nearly an hour to get through customs and in general was just desperate to finally get out of this building.

"Baggage claim nine, baggage claim nine...dear sweet Merlin, how do these people remember all of these places? Hogwarts was less of a maze!" Ginny Weasley, recent Hogwarts graduate, one of the primary (and youngest) heroes of the second Blood War, exclaimed as she ducked and weaved her way through the crowd of families coming and going for summer break.

"The Unspeakables just _had_ to set their meetings up for today, didn't they?" Ginny grumbled as she finally located the correct claim and waited for her single suitcase to emerge from the silver boardwalk. "It just _had_ to be the first time I was taking the plane and she said she'd be there to help me. It _had_ to be, because advance notices? What the hell are those supposed to be?"

The fact that she had to wait for nearly forty minutes to retrieve her baggage did nothing to help her mood. "It's very important," She quoted sourly, violently shaking the suitcase so the handle would extend, allowing her to comfortably drag it along behind her as she headed towards the bus stop. "But I still can't tell you what it is! Good lord, Hermione, after those seven years you don't think I've gotten tired of hearing that?"

The absent figure, one Hermione Granger, of course didn't answer, but expelling some of her frustration helped Ginny relax a bit as she collapsed into her seat on the shuttle bus and pulled a set of pages out of her backpack to examine them for the hundredth time.

One of them was the location and number of the quite posh hotel room she would be staying at for the next few weeks at least, the other an expensive looking invitation.

Leaning back against her seat, Ginny carefully placed her recently bought ear buds back in their place and unlocked her new cell phone.

Mundane folk were quite amazing, contrary to what current running for Minister of Magic Draco Malfoy might think. When they had started living together while training to join the Unspeakables, Hermione had introduced Ginny to how the non magical world worked. Her first trip down into the heart of London had made the magic-raised redhead positively dizzy – the contraptions she had seen were more like something out of a fantastic story than anything she had seen during her childhood.

A phone was like a combination of The Floo and the patronus messanger minus most of the effort and concentration required – and it could get a signal nearly anywhere! Herimone offered to cover the 'long distance' charges for her until she got a steady job, so the two friends could contact each other without much fuss.

The Iphone and mundane music was proving to be one of Ginny's favourite discoveries, though. At first, some of Hermione's favourite music – such as Green Day or Skillet – sounding shocking and discordant to her, but once she had adjusted she really came to love them, as well as other bands she would go on to discover.

Ginny closed her eyes as 'Iodine' drifted through her ears. She flipped the invitation over again, rereading what she had already looked at a dozen times. _Stark Tower, 7:00 pm._

 _Flashback_

" _Are you sure, Hermione?" Ginny asked in confusion, alternating between staring at the page and frowning at the other woman, who was walking back and forth in the kitchen preparing breakfast with the flick of a wand._

" _Yes, Ginny." Hermione said, sitting down in the chair across from her. A moment later, the scrambled eggs were set before them. "Unspeakable Keldo said that it's really important for me to be there for the next few days; the project is still very delicate and in its beginning stages."_

" _That's what you said last week," Ginny responded. "Has something gone wrong?"_

 _Hermione seemed to wince a bit at this. "Nothing dreadful...the probabilities proved to be more volatile then even he was expecting."_

 _Ginny bit her lip but accepted this. No one outside of the Unspeakables ring really knew what the new 'project' was; she had just been given vague details regarding the space-time distortions from six months ago since she had yet to complete her training. Hermione was being annoyingly secretive about it too, but that was probably to avoid disappointing her new boss._

" _Are you sure they won't mind someone else coming in your place?" Ginny asked suspiciously, regarding the slip once again. "This looks like a pretty high profile gig."_

" _I'm sure they won't," Hermione answered confidently. "On the scale of important people at that party, I'm pretty low on the scale – just a liaison from British healthcare, slated to work with Helen Cho on the regeneration project."_

" _As in, you trying to create some sort of concoction that uses just enough mundane medicine for you to start selling potions under the noses of the Statue of Secrecy." Ginny sniped._

 _Hermione rolled her eyes affectionately. "You know I'm not the only person considering revealing this magical world to our neighbours," She said. "With the arrival of aliens and gods, its rather redundant to keep hiding ourselves, especially as the world changes around us."_

 _Ginny snorted and took a swig of orange juice. "I bet the Malfoys and his compatriots must love that concept."_

 _Hermione's eyes hardened. "No, they're far to used to being able to swindle and bully muggles without fear of reprisal to consider it. They believe we have a sovereign right over such lowly people still."_

" _You'd think Riddle's pathetic end would have put paid to some of that," Ginny suggested scathingly._

 _Both girls winced a bit; despite several years having passed they both still bore the scars of the years where Tom Riddle cast his shadow over their childhoods._

" _When you've been raised with that mindset, its hard to change it," Hermione noted. "But as I was saying, I'm not particularly important. If Miss Cho asks you where I am, just say that you're a college of mine who was sent instead after an emergency came up."_

 _Ginny shook her head slowly, spinning her fork between her fingers. "I don't know, Hermione."_

" _Come on, Ginny! Have some wine, get a look at Tony Stark and Thor, throw some jokes around!" Hermione insisted. "Have a good time! You've been spending too much time buried in work."_

" _...Did you really just say that to_ me _?" Ginny asked incredulously._

 _Hermione ignored the jab at her hypocrisy and continued, "Ginny, really. You've done a lot of work, you deserve a break. Not here." She looked out the window. "Not around here. You should get a fresh start, a new look at the world away from...all this."_

 _Absently, she rubbed her arm where the faded scars of_ mudblood _still cut across her skin. Ginny looked down at the table, her eyes burning slightly as she remembered the conclusion to that seven year nightmare. Was it really going to make her cry? After all these fifteen years?_

" _What about you?" She asked eventually. "I could say the same thing..."_

 _Hermione managed to smile, "I told you, I can't really afford a break right now. But hey – after the week is over, I'll fly over and join you. Maybe we'll go to Disneyworld or Universal Studios. It'll be fun, Ginny. Just give it a chance."_

Ginny was brought out of her memories at the sound of her stop. Forcing her tired body to stand up, she took her suitcase and stepped out the door.

The train station was only a block away from the hotel building, which would be useful for getting to the party tomorrow. After paying for her room – which was mercifully easy, though she still fumbled with the bank card. At least the cashier lady didn't give her condescending looks like some of the flight attendants had.

Her room was nothing spectacular, but quite comfortable – a two person bed, a flat screen television set with multiple channels, a desk and a pamphlet for room service. Dropping her suitcase on the floor in relief, Ginny cast a nonverbal notice me not charm around the room so she could freely transform or levitate things without concern.

She drew out the red dress she had bought last notice – simple, but high class. Ginny wasn't used to having money for such extravagant outfits; it had taken her a long time to settle on what she felt would be the cheapest while still being sufficiently dressy enough.

After a long bath, she lay down in her bed and glanced out her window. The glow from the Stark Tower – now rechristened "Avengers Tower" – was visible even through the smog and chaos of the city.

"It's just a party," She murmured to herself. "It'll be fun. What could happen that hasn't already happened to you, and worse, before this?"

 **The Next Day**

Ginny felt distinctly out of her element at the extravagant party at the top of Avengers Tower.

The whole building had an elegant and very expensive look to it – Ginny was willing to bet that the cost of just one floor of this building could have rebuilt The Burrow five times over. There were a lot of people dressed in outfits that probably cost more then her dad had made in a year.

Even after the war, where her family was more respected by the general public, Ginny had still possessed a low class living. Seeing this kind of casual wealth was honestly kind of dizzying.

However, there was an...air...of casualness to the party. There was no sense of pretentiousness or self importance; just blunt honesty, and not even a particularly harmful sort. It just spoke of a man who didn't care to lie about who he was.

That man was Tony Stark.

Due to Wizarding Britain's isolationist policies and contempt towards mundane current events as a whole, Ginny had only received cliff notes over the last four or so years as Iron Man, and later the Avengers as a whole, rose to the world stage. She had seen the alien invasion from the distance – to her, it had just been a shudder and a shadow on the horizon.

As such, she had a rather impersonal attitude towards the chaos that had been occurring in the Americas over the last few years, especially since she was still recovering from the war she herself had experienced.

However, after reading up on the subject Ginny found she had a begrudging respect for Tony Stark.

Anyone could go, shoot up their enemies and call themselves a hero. Admitting responsibility in terrible things your company was involved with and swearing to change that, even to your detriment? Older and wiser folk had never managed that achievement.

Like certain old men.

Ginny scowled at the memory before shaking her head. This was a party, she should have fun. Besides, that war was gone and buried, all it's associated baggage with it...

/

"C'mon Steve. It's a _party!_ Live a little." Tony said in exasperation when he caught Steve Rogers hovering uncertainly by the bar.

"I think you and I have different opinions on what constitutes living," Steve responded, rolling his eyes.

"How's Sam doing?" Tony asked, nodding in the direction of the para rescue veteran.

"He's alright. Still working, though." Steve said, his mind drifting a bit on what, exactly, Sam was doing. He was looking for Bucky.

His old friend was doing a good job of hiding away. Perhaps he shouldn't be surprised, considering what being the Winter Soldier had entailed, but Steve still felt a little sadder ever time a lead went cold. He wanted his best friend back.

"Hey. Look there," Tony said, putting a hand on Steve's shoulder and pointing towards the edge of the crowd. A young redhaired girl – probably in her late twenties, early thirties – was hovering around the fringes, smiling and speaking casually but still looking distinctly uncertain, never entering the crowd fully.

"Tony. Don't start with that – Natasha's been bugging me enough about dates as it is," Steve said with a slight eyeroll as he remembered the assassin asking him about a girl literally seconds after kicking a perp of the top of a building.

"She's a _redhead_ ," Tony emphasized, clearly thinking about the absent Pepper Potts. "Seriously, it couldn't hurt. If you stand any stiffer, you'll be a statue – loosen up."

"I don't think..."

"You can thank me for this later," Tony promised. Before Steve could say anything, Tony gave him a mighty shove. Stumbling over his feet, Steve straightened up and nearly ran straight into the young woman who had been making her way to the drink stand.

"Oh! I'm sorry-"

"No, it's okay. I'm sorry, wasn't watching my step." Steve threw Tony a dark look. The billionaire merely raised his hands defensively and grinned in his patented annoying way.

The redhead examined him for a moment, as though she needed a second to place his identity in her mind. "Are you Steve Rogers?" She asked.

Steve nodded sheepishly. "Guilty as charged. Can I get you a drink?"

The girl smiled after a moment before raising her hand. "Ginny Weasley – a scotch would be nice."

"Where're you from? You seem a little out of place around here," Steve asked once he had gotten her the glass.

Ginny took a sip before responding, "Yeah, I'm British. Lived out in the country until I turned eighteen. My friend had an emergency come up at her workplace, so I offered to come here in her place...Miss Cho was very understanding about it." She waved. "My family wasn't really well off, so this is all...a bit overwhelming at first."

"I thought the same thing, actually, when I first got here." Steve remarked.

Ginny's eyes softened. "I imagine there weren't a lot of buildings like this back in the forties."

"...No. No there weren't."

"Would you mind if I asked a personal question?"

"Well, you've been far more polite than the reporters that spend every other day trying to break my door down, so...sure." Steve said with an awkward smile. Ginny laughed in response before her expression became serious again.

"...How do you manage, with everything being so different? A lot of things have changed since then...both the good and the bad. How do you keep going despite what you've experienced?"

Steve looked curiously at her. "Are you asking a question, or seeking advice?"

Ginny didn't seem surprised to be found out. "A bit of both," She admitted. "My, uh...my community was in turmoil for most of my childhood. Now that it's all over...I kind of feel like a leaf in the wind."

Steve paused for a long moment before saying, "You know? It's strange, but you just keep walking. Even if the world's been burned down, a city torn and rebuilt, you still have two good, strong legs – they can keep carrying you, no matter where the future leads."

Ginny seemed to think on that for a moment before saying, "Some of my neighbours think there isn't any life outside our community. I guess I'll have to prove them wrong, won't I?"

Steve smiled, "Yeah. That's a good way of looking at it."

"Thank you," Ginny said sincerely, before wincing and putting a hand on her stomach. "Ah, excuse me...this food's a bit on the rich side."

"Of course," Steve said, slightly embarrassed, but Ginny threw him a friendly smile before shouldering her way through the crowd in search of a washroom. _Strange girl,_ he thought, _but she's pretty smart._

 ****Later****

"You want me to transfer this back to Hermione's branch?" Ginny clarified.

"If you would," Helen Cho responded, placing a package on the table. "My hospital is running overtime in an attempt to prepare the cradle for worldwide release; I could use some other interns but I'm too busy to spread the news myself."

"Sure thing," Ginny said.

Most of the party guests had dispersed now, leaving only the Avengers, Stark's new secretary Maria Hill and Helen Cho behind.

Helen asked Ginny to stay a little longer, not only to pass information along to Hermione but just to talk; Ginny had impressed her with her sharp mind and she was hoping they would talk more.

Now Ginny was watching the gods on the couch laughing and joking like normal people.

Bruce Banner looked far less frightening than some of the newspapers would have had her believe. In fact Ginny found herself quite fiercely reminded of Remus Lupin; kind, softspoken and gentle but cursed with something that occasionally turned him into a monster. He also self deprecated and believed himself to be different from most people though Ginny thought otherwise. Especially if he shared a personality to her former DADA teacher.

Clint Barton had a sense of humour that reminded her slightly of her youngest brother, which while causing a twinge of grief was comforting in its own way. While some newspapers had written him off as useless compared to his companions, Ginny felt at some points that he was a balancing element – again, reminding her a strange mixture of Ron and Harry.

Thor was more intelligent and well spoken than she had expected. Sure, he did possess that overt manliness and testosterone poisoning that she had expected of the god of a warlike people, but he was actually quite eloquent. Not only that, but sometimes when he smiled and talked he seemed more like a puppy then anything cruel or dangerous.

Natasha Romanov was...interesting. Ginny had an inkling she hid a lot of her thoughts and personality, even around friends – in that way, they were rather alike. Ginny had buried a lot of her old thoughts and aspirations following the war, deeming them simply too painful to consider now and too tainted by the memories of those harsh times to want to carry on into adulthood.

Tony Stark was...exactly what she expected him to be. He was arrogant and confident, constantly smiling and joking and making everyone at ease. However, Ginny had a sense that there was something sad deep inside him, though his mask was to competently made for her to be certain.

James Rhodes was the straight man to Tony's antics. Their interactions made everyone laugh, but he was clearly still a military man, like Maria Hill. Ginny had spotted several of the concealed weapons in the room, though she had pretended otherwise.

"...Ginny! Would you like to try?" Ginny was brought out of her thoughts by Steve's voice. She blinked and realized the group was pointing to Thor's enchanted hammer, which was sitting innocuously on the desk.

"Alright," She said with a shrug. _Could it hurt_. "Shall _he_ be worthy, huh...?" She threw a faux serious scowl at Thor when she said this.

The thunder god raised his hands in the gesture of surrender. "Those would not be my words." He said. "I've seen many a shield maiden in action, too many to fall for such fanciful thinking."

"That's nice." Ginny said as she grasped the handle. She could feel the magic pulsing through the weapon, and her own responding to it.

With a gasp, she managed to lift it for a moment before instantly dropping it, swearing when it caused a crack in the table.

"Sorry," She said to Tony, who was laughing at Thor's stunned expression along with Clint. Steve and Bruce mainly looked awed while Natasha regarded her critically.

"Better watch out Steve, the army might just recruit Lady Liberty here – worthy of the god's powers! By a bit." Tony chuckled. Steve rolled his eyes at this, though he did smile just enough to imply that he possessed some affection for his teammate after all.

Ginny smiled a bit, feeling more at ease as she sat down again.

Then the screeching filled the air.

 **End Chapter**

 **I hope this establishes Ginny's current situation and thought process as well as giving her a semi-rational reason to meet the Avengers. It's going to be a quick thing, because I've watched Mad Max Fury Road. There's no being confused or surprised by other people when there's no freakin time for that. It's 'oh, you can do the thing? good, do the thing'. Next time, Ultron and the Maximoffs! Yay!**

 **Read and Review please!**


	2. Chapter 2

**How I Spent My Vacation**

 **Tyene: Shouldn't you update that _other_ crossover you have up?**

 **Wanda: I'm getting there. Be patient.**

 **Tyene: ...those are my _children_ you're talking about.**

 **Wanda: They're fine! (is lying somewhat) Don't worry! I do not own Harry Potter or the Avengers (unfortunately).**

 **Chapter 2: It's Magic**

"No...how could you be worthy?"

Ginny stared at the mangled iron man suit that was stumbling towards them. It was...speaking. Not like the computer that ran the building (who had been kind enough to give her directions before). The voice was low, guttural...and threatening.

Yet at the same time...it seemed lost. Almost frightened...confused.

"You're all killers."

"Stark?" Steve demanded in a low voice.

Tony grimaced and started hitting buttons on his phone. "Reboot...got a buggy suit..."

"I'm sorry...it was someplace dark or...I was...dreaming. There was this terrible... _noise_...and I was tangled in..." The robot turned around slowly, as though looking for something. "in...strings."

Despite her every instinct telling her to be on her guard, Ginny couldn't help taking a small step forward. "And...are you alright now...?" She asked carefully.

"Yes... ...no." The robot seemed almost puzzled by the question. "I saw things...my purpose..." He tilted his head and stared right at her. The look sent a shiver down her spine. "...Purpose...the mission...for those like you..."

 _For some reason, I don't like the sound of that._

"What is your mission?" Steve demanded.

The robot shifted again. " _peace in our time."_ That was Tony's voice. Ginny glanced at him; the man had gone very pale at this.

"Ultron!" Bruce gasped.

 _Ultron?_

"I had to kill the other guy. He was a nice guy."

"You killed someone?" Steve echoed sharply.

"Wouldn't have been my first call," The robot said. His voice was a strange mixture of coldness and a shred of regret.

Ginny slipped her fingers up the inside of her left sleeve; her wand was strapped to her arm. _Thank god I brought it in the end..._

"There's only one path to peace...your extinction."

Suddenly, the wall behind him erupted, dozens of Iron Man suits flying straight at them, repulsers blazing. Ginny snapped her wand forward and shouted, " _PROTEGRO!"_

Three suits smashed into the invisible force field between them and the avengers, immediately exploding or splintering into pieces. Upon seeing this, the others veered sharply in other directions.

Ginny turned to the right, saw another one and mentally roared, " _REDUCTO!"_ The blast struck the iron creation in the chest, blowing an arm off and damaging the chassis. _Thank god Hermione pressured me into learning some non verbal magic...! I'll have to apologize to her later for throwing a fit over it!_

Disabling her shield so the Avengers could move around freely, Ginny darted to the left to avoid gunfire from the next attacker. The rest, momentarily stunned, immediately unfroze at that and moved into an attack formation.

She noticed Steve's shield was missing, so she pointed her wand straight up and muttered " _Accio!"_ to bring it over. Tony immediately climbed a stair case, grabbed meatfork and jumped on the nearest suit to him.

"Steve!" Ginny yelled as the disk like weapon hurtled through the air. Steve turned her way and saw it; Ginny ducked allowing him to catch it and bury it in the neck of the nearest Ultron-driod.

Ginny glanced in Clint's direction, but he was using two of the concealed guns to great effect. So instead she apparated over to Helen, who was being menaced by another suit. Another quick reducto blasted its head off its shoulders, and a well timed _bombarda_ finished off its buddy.

Ginny knelt next to Helen, "Are you hurt?"

Dazed, the woman shook her head to the negative. "Don't move from this spot," Ginny instructed before casting another shield charm around her. Turning back around, she dove into the fray again.

There weren't many suits left, so Steve, Thor and herself finished off the remainders before turning to face the original.

"Well, that could have gone better." Ultron said mildly. He didn't seem the least bit perturbed by his loss. "I'm sorry, I know you mean well...but you're a sickness...you want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change...you're all puppets."

"Hmph. I should have used that line of my last school headmaster." Ginny responded coldly. "What do you want?"

"Peace in our time." With that, the body dropped dead.

 _Rest and recuperation. Just have some fun._ Ginny thought sourly. _Thanks, Hermione._

She let out a breath and turned around. All the Avengers were staring at her, wide eyed. It hadn't even occurred to her that she was using magic in front of 'muggles' – she had figured they had seen stranger things and imminent death and all.

Tony got his voice back first. "Who the hell are you?" He demanded.

Ginny groaned mentally. _Just when I thought this night couldn't get any worse..._ "Exactly who I said I was. I'm Ginny Weasley and I'm British."

"You're a sorcerer." Thor's accusing voice came from the right. He was staring at her as though he was seeing someone else.

Ginny scowled, "We generally prefer the term 'witch'." She said. _No point in hiding it now. Besides, we have bigger problems..._ "But yes. I am."

"Oh, come on!" Tony snapped. "Are we really doing this now? There's no scientific basis for 'magic', it's all smokescreens and nonsense."

Ginny gritted her teeth, let out a calming breath and threw a repairing spell at the table directly in front of them. It reassembled without a single scratch on it, as if it had never been broken in the first place. "Any other questions?" She asked sarcastically.

Tony gaped at her. Bruce stuttered for a moment before saying, "You just ignored every law of physics!"

"...You personally fought an army of aliens that came out of a _hole in the sky_ , and _I'm_ the weirdest thing you've ever seen?" Ginny demanded incredulously. "Are you kidding me? Am I the only person in the room who sees the Thunder God standing over there?" She waved a hand in Thor's direction.

"What do you want?" Maria Hill asked warily.

"To have a goddamn vacation!" Ginny snapped. "'Just have a night out, she said, it'll be fun, she said!" She flung her hands over her head. "I don't even know what I was expecting! You do realize I could be thrown in Azkaban for a year _or_ fined more money then I ever had just for admitting this and using magic in front of you?"

"What? Seriously?" Clint demanded. "You have your own jail?"

"It's not just me." Ginny retorted, crossing her arms. "Witches and wizards went into hiding and built our civilizations next to yours. We did that because there was this funny period in time when young, innocent young women were tied to stakes and _burned_ because they could use magic!"

"We are not demons! We are not monsters! We never were! Magic was a blessing granted to us during the days of Avalon! We didn't feel like having to always fight for our right to live so we hid ourselves! So we built our own society, and yes, our own jail! Some of us are _still_ so afraid of you that yes, penalties for using magic in front of you are _severe_! _You're welcome_ , by the way."

She hadn't meant to get that upset; if anything Tony's comment had only mildly annoyed her. However, there was something about the accusing way they were looking at her that dug up unwanted feelings from just after the blood war had ended.

After they had all given up so much, some of them their lives – close friends, family – what had really changed in their world? She was expected to give up everything but receive nothing in return. It was a cold, bitter feeling.

Ginny's head jerked up when a hand was placed on her shoulder. It was Steve, regarding her with some concern. "I believe you," He said sincerely. "And thank you."

"They're not actually going to throw you in jail, are they?" Bruce asked, slightly alarmed.

Natasha shrugged at that. "What they don't know won't hurt them," She suggested calmly. She regarded Ginny with something almost like curiosity. "What was that thing you did...it blew a hole straight through one of Stark's suits."

"It's a blasting curse." Ginny responded slightly hesitantly, her anger draining away into surprise and uncertainty. "I learned it at school."

Clint snorted at this, prompting Natasha to kick him in the shin. "Ow!" he protested. "Hey! I wasn't trying to be a dick, this is just a lot to swallow all at once, okay?"

"If you're done being surprised by the witch," Natasha responded drolly, "Perhaps we should do something about the rouge robot that just left?"

"What is Ultron?" Ginny asked.

Tony groaned. "Bruce, mind filling her in?"

 **A Bath, a short rest, lots of explaining and Some Time Later**

"Er...can I ask a question?"

Tony groaned again. "Shoot."

"How did a peace keeping robot decide the way to peace involved killing?"

"Please, not you too, it wasn't supposed to happen this way-!"

"No, I'm not bashing you, that's a serious question," Ginny said, waving a hand to get Tony to calm down. "Is there anything or anyone else here that could have affected that? Why would Ultron decide you were the threat? Where did his brain come from?"

Tony grimaced and stared at the remains of Jarvis. "The Gem..."

"The what?"

Reluctantly, Natasha filled her in on some of the aspects of the Invasion that hadn't made it into the papers while Thor grabbed Tony by the neck and yelled at him for toying with it.

"So it's an all powerful sentient computer...ah!"

"What?" Natasha asked.

"Well, Bruce said it was like the gem was 'thinking'. If it could do that, who's to say it's not just an energy source?" Ginny suggested. She was reminded, rather darkly, of the One Ring from the Tolkien books Hermione had shown her. "Maybe it can think on its own...and had something to do with triggering Ultron's sentience?"

Both Natasha and Maria looked thoroughly disturbed at that suggestion, while Clint muttered something uncomplimentary about things that came from space. Bruce's eyes widened and he shot Tony a concerned look.

Natasha rubbed her forehead, "If you guys designed him to defend the human race, you _amazingly_ failed..."

"Do we have any idea where he is now?" Ginny suggested, partially for Tony's sake and partially to remind everyone of their priorities. The whole team was ragging on him, making her wonder if he was the designated punching bag or what.

Ginny mainly focused on catching up while the Avengers discussed everyone related to the Gem that had been taken by Ultron and his drones. The continued existence of HYDRA had fallen flat on its face, apparently neglecting to consider that deliberately pissing off the world's most powerful warriors might end badly for them. One of the few remaining HYDRA members, Strucker, had been in possession of the staff prior to his capture.

While Strucker had just been murdered by the insane robot, two of his 'projects' were still out and about – the Maximoff siblings. Enhanced.

Ginny stared down at the Ipad Maria had given her for a long moment, watching Wanda and Pietro move around.

They were both very beautiful - breathtaking- in an ethereal, understated way; Wanda dark and Pietro light. They were both protesting the civil war Sokovia had been embroiled in during their childhood... she found herself being slightly reminded of herself, Hermione, Ron and Harry back in Hogwarts.

Gently she touched the screen above their heads, wondering how terrible their childhoods must have been if turning to HYDRA was the only way they could find agency.

"...yup. All we had on Strucker has been erased." Natasha's sour voice drifted from the left. Ginny glanced up from the tablet to where the rest of the team was crowded around a computer.

"Not everything." Tony said firmly. When the redhead gave him a curious look, he stated, "I still keep physical files."

Ginny flicked her wrist and summoned them from the basement. Tony watched in awe as the boxes floated down and rested on the table, causing a warm sense of pride to wash through the young redhead.

"Man." Clint whistled. "Why bother getting out of bed in the morning if you can just wave a hand? That would be great for TV nights – wouldn't have to bother with the pause button!"

Ginny chuckled. "even you would get bored of doing nothing but lie down for hours and hours." She said.

The next twenty minutes were dedicated to sifting through the files of Strucker's assocites. Ginny's expression twisted into a scowl as she tossed aside a file marked 'Syn'. She was reminded of Bellatrix Lestrange.

 _We all have monsters in our midst, no matter where we go,_ She thought darkly.

"Wait. I know that guy." Tony's voice broke her from her revere. "Ulysses Klaue. Black market arms." He glared at Steve, who was giving him a cold look. "There are conventions. I meet people, I never sold him anything."

Ginny examined the picture before pointing at his neck. "Look at that. That isn't a tattoo, it's a brand. Like a prisoner ID."

Bruce took the page from her and ran the symbol through a computer recognition software. "It's a word in an African dialect that means 'thief'...in a much less friendly way."

Ginny resisted the urge to chuckle wryly. _Sounds like the goblins_. "What dialect?" Maria asked.

"Wakanada? Wakanda." Bruce said.

Immediately Steve's eyes narrowed. "I thought your father used the last of it," He said accusingly at Tony.

Ginny frowned. "Wakanda? I don't get it, what do they sell...?"

"They don't sell anything." Tony said darkly. He turned in the direction of Captain America's painted shield. "But they trade sometimes...and they possess the strongest metal on earth."

 **End Chapter**

 **Next time, Ginny turns a certain robot into a shrub, Pietro and Wanda are confused, and the Hulk manages to _not_ destroy half a city in a drug induced temper tantrum. Though not entirely voluntarily.**

 **Read and Review please!**


	3. Chapter 3

**How I Spent My Vacation**

 **Tyene: I'm still hold the right to assert my amazement that your head hasn't broken down.**

 **Ginny: Her!? What about me? Suddenly I have five scripts to be reading while mimicking my alternate universe counterparts!**

 **Wanda: Oh, stop complaining - it beats being in the epilogue. I do not own Harry Potter or the Avengers.**

 **Chapter 3: Confrontations and Old Memories**

Ginny slid between the rest of the Avengers, feeling a bit more at ease among them.

Maria had been a bit reluctant to let her come along, citing the fact she was a near stranger, but Tony abruptly overrode her - "She helped stop us from being blown up. She has a vested interest in the world remaining un – destroyed. She can come."

Clint had relaxed a bit around her once it was clear she wasn't using magic consistently around them. Ginny was sure to keep her wand in its holster whenever they were together, as a way of showing she meant him no harm. The older man's experience with brainwashing was something she empathized with, and she didn't want to stress him out.

Bruce kind of hovered around her, looking like he wanted to ask her questions about her magic but was too intimidated to ask. Ginny threw tentative smiles in his direction whenever he approached and talked to her.

Natasha seemed the most at ease around Ginny, which struck the redhead as odd but not unwanted. Thor on the other hand, seemed to be going a bit out of his way to avoid looking at or talking to her, much to her annoyance.

"Could you be a bit more blunt about avoiding me? You'd think I was a leaper." Ginny grumbled as she stepped past Thor, who immediately started talking to Clint who was behind him.

"His brother was a sorcerer." Natasha said by way of explanation. She didn't look entirely happy at the memory of that individual. "He was killed a few months ago; Thor's still a bit sensitive about it." She rubbed the back of her neck after saying that.

"Huh." Ginny said in a non-committal tone, glancing back at the Thunder God. She felt a stab of sympathy; loosing family...it was the worst thing anyone could go through. She bit her lip and forced back a few recent memories she was putting considerable effort into forgetting.

Taking a step forward, she glanced out through the window. The sky was clear, leaving a blazing sun directly overhead of a sandy desert area. There were a few ships ground up in the sand, making her wonder if the heat had dried some of the water up.

 _This is the world I know so little of,_ Ginny thought. The place seemed so innocuous from the outside, but Tony had confirmed that this was where Klaue was hanging out. They didn't have disillusionment charms, but even here enemies could hide away in plain sight.

"Is this going to be a code green?" Bruce asked nervously.

"Hopefully not," Steve assured him, picking up his shield while everyone else prepared to storm in. "But we'll let you know if it is."

"Is that all you're bringing?" Clint asked, eyeing Ginny's wand questioningly as she tied her hair back and took a deep breath to mentally prepare herself for another fight.

Ginny smiled dryly. "Mr Barton, I could use this to turn you into a shrub. I can attack and defend with it. It's all I need."

 ****Inside the Ship****

 _Something's wrong_. The ship was deserted and the lights were out. Ginny suspected that Ultron's programming would make him a dangerous opponent, but how far he could predict their movements could prove to be their undoing if they weren't careful.

Ultron had a new body. Instead of the twisted Frankenstein mesh of wire and metal from his first appearance, he now stood taller then a human, with glowing red eyes and an all silver body. _How did he get that so quickly?_ Ginny wondered in alarm.

He wasn't alone – the twins were with him.

Pietro and Wanda stood on either side of him. Wanda was giving Tony a cold, near murderous look while Pietro had an expression of cold amusement.

"If I have to," Ultron droned in response to something Tony said. Ginny quickly cast a nonverbal shielding charm just to be on the safe side – this was going to get ugly fast.

"If you believe in peace, then let us keep it." Thor said stoutly. _That's not something I would have expected him to say._

"I think you're confusing 'peace' with 'quiet'." Ultron said tersely.

As much as it bothered her to consider it, Ginny knew the crazed robot was right to some degree. The fifteen year silence between the first and second blood war hadn't been peace, not really – Riddle's followers had simply boded their time to get revenge. Thanks to that, the second war was worse than the first one. On the other hand, that was hardly always applicable and the word never behaved as specifically as the statistics said they should...

"Clearly you've never made an omelet," Ultron said derisively.

 _What are you – some sort of demented Pinnochio?_

"...He beat me by _one_ second." Tony said. Ginny shot him a look that she hoped conveyed, 'not freakin now, are you kidding?'

"Ha! ...Is funny, Mr Stark." Pietro Maximoff said, his voice coloured by a shiver-inducing accent. Ginny blinked, wondering what was wrong with her – _why would I notice that?_ "Comfortable to you here, is it?" He nodded at some of the weapons that lay at the side of the catwalk. "Bring back old memories?"

The Iron Man suit twitched. Ginny could sense Tony's unease and hurt. "This was never my life..." He muttered, clearly not expecting either twin to believe him.

Steve, on the other hand, took a different approach. "You too can still walk away from this." He said.

"Oh, we will." Wanda said calmly, regarding the captain with something like cold amusement.

"I know you've suffered-" Steve started, but Ultron cut him off with a sharp, derisive laugh. Ginny cringed, the sound was like a broken TV.

"Captain America. God's righteous man. Pretending you could live in a world without a war." The robot shook his head with mirth. "I can't physically throw up in my mouth;"

"I think you're confusing statistics with human behaviour." Ginny interrupted, crossing her arms. "How old are you, anyway? About a day by now? What makes you so certain we're doomed?"

"If the human race was doomed to destroy itself...we would have done that by now. World wide society has collapsed before, because of all the things you've probably looked up online. But we're still here... creating something new. A better world. People fall. People struggle. That's the curse and blessing of sentience. The power to choose. For every man who chooses to be a monster...there's someone who chooses to be good. And I don't think, for every war in the world, there's enough darkness in this world to justify sinking it into the abyss."

"Hmph." Ultron said after a silent moment. "You're adorably naive. You'll be crushed under the weight of the world's evils."

Ginny couldn't help but smirk a bit. "Funny. Another freak of nature said that to me a decade ago...he got vaporized."

With that, she threw a transfiguration spell at Ultron. It hit him square in the chest and transformed him into a bundle of roses.

For a second, the ship was frozen in the most stunned, awkward silence imaginable.

"Now, that's just rude!" Ultron's voice sounded from directly above the Avengers. Having transported himself to a different body at the last second, he went straight for an attack...possibly having the urge to reassert his competence. Because _roses._

Tony was thrown into the air. Activating his suit's flight system after a moment of confusion, he responded in kind and the battle began.

 **-How I Spent My Vacation-**

Ginny was torn between struggling to hit a sliver blur and throwing up extra protection against Klaue's mercenaries, who were attacking all of them and proving to be an extremely annoying distraction.

"Do all your vacations end up like this?" Clint asked casually before throwing a merc over the railing onto the floor with a wince inducing _thud_.

"I don't really want to talk about it." Ginny responded sourly. "This is why I work through July. God, I'm going to _strangle_ Hermione for suggesting this."

"Hermione?"

"Friend of mine. Works for the Department of Mysteries on some 'project' she won't tell me about." Ginny said. _Reducto – Stupify – Bombarda – Levicorpus._ Her enemies went flying in all different directions.

"Is that your version of SHIELD?"

"Yeah – well, with more annoying schedule switching and fewer Neo Nazis. At least, as far as I know."

"A little help over here?" Natasha yelled from further down the track. Ginny apparated down up a floor and threw a cutting hex at the merc's back, freeing up Natasha who had gotten caught in a headlock while fighting two other goons at the same time.

"Thank you," The other redhead said before slamming an iron baton into the last guy's face.

Ginny smiled and nodded – but her relief was cut short when Wanda melted out of the shadows behind Natasha and threw a blast of red energy at her. Natasha's eyes glazed over and she stumbled towards the stairs.

Ginny threw a barrage of curses at the enhanced, causing her to retreat. Hurrying over to Natasha, she put a hand on the woman's shoulder only to suddenly plunge into a dark red light...

 _~Flashback~_

" _Obey me, girl..."_

 _Ginny slowly walked down the halls of Hogwarts. The building constantly shuddered and warped like a scratched record; one moment it was immaculate and clean yet abandoned, the next it was a roaring war zone with faded screams echoing through the silent hallways._

 _She stumbled over a body. It was Fred's, his eyes sightless with his final laugh etched upon his lips._

" _Death! - you promised (promised!) they'd be safe! (screech) You'll be next, mudbloods..._

 _The floor was suddenly empty again. Her first year. She was holding that diary. She was alone, lying at the foot of the wall, her hands covered in blood._

 _And he was there. She could feel him wrenching at her arms, pulling her forward and pressing against her skin. She could feel his breath on her neck and his voice whispering in her ear, all her secrets, her fears, her resentments...and his, too._

" _You can't escape me! Sacred 28 (-you'll be perfect-) Finish my ancestor's grand work – Harry Potter - - (please help me)_

 _Suddenly she could move on her own again. She felt herself running, ghosting over the floor, towards the bathroom...had to get rid of it...how could she make him go away...!?_

 _Tom Riddle sank his dark magic into her soul, trapping her, stealing her away._

 _The chamber was dark, cold, and lonely. She could never leave. No one was looking. She was going to die, her family was going to die, the world would blissfully turn on without them-_

" _ **I WILL NEVER BE A MEMORY TO YOU!"**_

 _His voice ripped through her like a chainsaw. A horrible, agonizing pain struck her chest, that tearing feeling._

 _Give up. Release everything that you are, and become my weapon._

 _I am your god. You are my weapon with which I shall rise again, and being ruin upon those who thought they could destroy my magnificence..._

 _A gasp. One that wasn't her own._

 _Ginny looked up and saw Wanda standing in front of her._

 _The other girl looked genuinely horrified._

 _~End Flashback~_

Ginny threw a cutting curse, fuelled by the rage of a thousand McGonagalls at the sight of cheating Slytherins at Wanda for daring to touch that memory. Judging by the resulting shriek of pain, she had hit, but once her vision had cleared she noticed the other witch was just holding her wrist. In her distress, her aim was off.

A crash in the distance. A moment later, a familiar silver blur appeared, took Wanda and vanished outside.

Ginny had to lean against the wall. Her ears were ringing and her current setting seemed so far away – the chamber manifested when she closed her eyes.

" _Hello? Everyone? We've got a problem!"_ Tony yelled over the communication lines.

Glancing around, Ginny realized that Natasha, Steve and Thor were all lost in the visions, and she couldn't see Clint – _Pietro had thrown him through a glass wall, he must be stunned_ -

Raising a shaking hand to the earpiece the millionaire had given her, she asked, "What's happened?"

" _Ultron triggered the Hulk. He's headed to the city."_

Ginny groaned, let out a long breath and said "I'll be there as soon as I can."

 **Outside**

"I'm fine, I'm fine..." Wanda gasped as Pietro finished binding her wrist.

"Who was it!? I'll kill them-!"

"No, Pietro...I'm alright." Wanda insisted. "The mission is over. I got the big one." She shivered.

"What's wrong?" Pietro asked anxiously, touching the side of her face to get her to look him in the eye.

"You shouldn't have looked at that," A new voice said. Pietro got up to see that new avenger...the one who's powers seemed strangely similar to Wanda's...standing behind them. She pointed a wooden stick in the air and muttered something before glaring at them. She looked tired and angry.

Wanda got up slowly and said. "That man...that place..."

The redhead's angry look intensified. "I hope that gives you an idea...of how I feel about people who go poking around in my head."

Pietro tensed up, but a second later the redhead raised her hand in the air. A moment later, a _goddamn broom_ flies through the air into her hand. She jumped onto it and hurtled through the air in the direction of the city.

 **End Chapter**

 **Yup, Ginny can fly. Hey, those Quidditch skills had to come in handy somehow, considering how much attention they were given.**

 **Read and Review please!**


	4. Chapter 4

**How I Spent My Vacation**

 **Tyene: Wanda, I'm warning you, I am a warrior, not your errand girl or maid!**

 **Wanda: (shuffling scripts) I just asked for a little help and you said yes! Can you fault me for that?**

 **Tyene: (glares at me) We do not own Harry Potter or the Avengers.**

 **Chapter 4: Containment**

 _I should sent George another letter for getting me this for my birthday despite me ditching my professional Quidditch plans. You never know indeed, and it would have cost him a fortune._

The Firebolt was a masterpiece of flight; it brought Ginny to the city in a matter of moments. Pulling to a stop, she looked down, searching for the green Goliath.

He was hard to miss; there was a line of broken down trees aimed straight for the city, and faint screams echoed from the center of the city itself.

Ginny scanned the sky. Tony's suit was getting upgraded...must be 'Veronica'. _Then I should keep him in one place!_

Bolting down to the street, Ginny jumped onto the ground and thrust her boom back into her bottomless purse. The hulk was about to tear a car in half when she hit him in the back with a stunning spell.

Ginny couldn't help but balk when Hulk turned around and scowled at her. He was bigger than the trolls that had assaulted Hogwarts in her final year. His eyes were glowing red – _Wanda's work, it had to be –_ and he looked exceptionally pissed.

Ginny let out a breath and pointed her wand in the air. _Protegro!_ A shield surrounded her and the Hulk, locking him into the intersection. It would keep him in one place. After that, she quickly cast _Sonorus_ on her throat and shouted at the crowds, " _Clear the streets! We have a situation, get away from this area!_ "

The hulk lunged at her.

 _Sorry Bruce,_ Ginny thought before apparating to outside her shield. The hulk crashed into the shield and was thrown onto his back.

"Hey! What's going on!?" A nearby soldier shouted. Ginny glanced over at him, cringing as the Hulk got up and started hammering away at her construct.

"Someone triggered the hulk unexpectedly." She explained hastily. "Iron Man and I are going to try and contain him; get everyone away from this area!"

"How can you keep him here!?"

"Trust me!" Ginny promised, flinching when the Hulk struck her shield again. The soldier looked between her and the trapped Hulk before barking orders at the rest of his squad, who immediately began hustling the citizens away towards the buildings.

With a grunt of pain, she let her shield down for a moment before lashing out with a cheering charm. She didn't think that would stop him, but if his power was equal to his rage it might weaken him.

The Hulk shrugged the spell off and turned towards her while frightened citizen were still hurrying into buildings and underground to hide from the battle, until a huge red blur fell down from the sky and trapped him in a titanium cell.

Ginny couldn't help but let out a yelp of surprise when Tony landed next to her, decked out in the Hulkbuster armor. She had never seen anything like it before.

"Do we have a plan?" She asked him through the earpiece.

"We've got to make him to go sleep!" Tony responded, before swearing upon realizing the Hulk had dug his way out from under the containment cell. Ginny hurriedly cast another protego to prevent the creature from leaving the intersection. "I don't suppose you have a spell for that!?"

The two jumped in opposite directions to avoid the Hulk's next attack.

"He's resisted my stunners," Ginny said anxiously. "I think its because he shares a lot of similarities with trolls..."

"You also have-? Argh, never mind! In the back? Dick move, Banner!" Ginny blasted the iron pole to pieces to free up Tony's arm, allowing him to knock the Hulk away.

"Hey, how long can you hold up this shield?" Tony asked.

"If I'm focusing on it?" Ginny responded, grimacing. _This is going to suck._ "Long enough."

The Arc reactor let out a whine of power as Tony hurtled the Hulk into the side of the shield, and began to punch him into it over and over and over. Ginny felt a stabbing pain in her head with each consecutive blow. Her vision blurred and blood trailed down her nose.

The Hulk sank to the ground seconds before the world faded away.

 ****Later****

"...hey, kid... ...you with us now?"

Ginny blinked lethargically as the inside of the Quinjet came into focus. The screams of her fellow students faded from her ears; the nightmare had come back to haunt her once she had passed out. It would probably be a while before she could repress it again.

Tony was standing next to the cold medical bed she was lying on. "How are you?" He asked. "I didn't think you'd take such a beating from that."

Ginny stretched her stiff arms and muttered, "It's been a while since I've done something like that." She said. She looked around the room and scowled. "Hill didn't think it was worth mentioning that Wanda Maximoff is psychic?"

Tony let out a hollow chuckle. "No one believed that was possible. Psychic powers were up there with magic until yesterday."

Ginny looked around. None of the other Avengers were talking to each other – they were all leaning against their seats, lost in thought.

 _Luna had that same dull expression after the battle of Hogwarts. She sat next to Neville's body for the next twelve hours and refused to eat or sleep the whole time._

Ginny stood up, shaking her head to clear the cobwebs away. "How was the damage?" She asked quietly.

"Minimal, thanks to you keeping him in one spot. No deaths reported, and Stark relief will clear up the property damage done." Tony responded, giving her a small smile. "The media's in love with you for it – you might need to keep that shield up the next time you go downtown."

Ginny couldn't help but giggle a bit in response. Helping bring an end to the second blood war barely warranted so much as a thank you, but helping a dangerous friend calm down made her an angel. _Probably should have moved to the mundane world a long time ago,_ she thought wistfully.

Speaking of whom...

Ginny carefully stepped past Thor and knelt down next to Bruce, who was wrapped up in a blanket with a terribly pained expression.

"It's alright." She said softly. "No one was killed."

Bruce turned his head slightly to look at her. His eyes somehow became even more forlorn. "God, did he do that to you?"

Ginny blinked. Upon licking her lip, she realized that there was still bloodstains under her nose. "No." She said gently. "I was just a bit overtaxed. I haven't been in a real fight for...what, ten years now?" She shook her head. "Good lord...it feels like yesterday sometimes..."

For a moment, both were quiet, lost in thought. "The world just saw the hulk..." Bruce whispered. "The real hulk, for the first time..."

Ginny frowned. "That wasn't the real hulk...that was the hulk under the influence of Maximoff's powers. There's a difference. That wasn't your fault."

Bruce shook his head, causing Ginny to sigh slightly. _I swear it's like I'm talking to Harry again..._ "Listen. Those circumstances were out of your control; you can't take the blame for that. You haven't stopped being a hero just because of that."

Bruce stared at the wall head of him before whispering, "She made me see it..."

"See what?"

"The hulk killed them." He said softly. "He killed every one...Tony, Natasha, Clint, Steve...Betty." He shut his eyes tightly.

Ginny gently placed a hand on his shoulders. "Who's Betty?" She asked quietly.

Bruce blinked hard, restraining the urge to cry over the lot he had been dealt in life. "Betty...she was... she was everything to me."

Ginny understood instantly, what he meant. A sharp stab of pain-tinged sympathy rushed through her. "What happened?"

"What do you think? I can't be around her...not like this." Bruce said miserably. "Even if the Hulk...the other guy, even if he won't hurt her, just being near me...I'm a walking disaster. It would get her killed."

"You didn't look like much of a disaster at the party." Ginny responded. "Trust me, Bruce...even if the Hulk is always a part of you, that doesn't make you a monster... ...where I come from, I knew a werewolf once."

It was a mark of the general feel of the room that Bruce didn't even blink at this information. "He was a kind, gentle soul who loved reading," Ginny continued, seeing Remus in her second year defense class in her mind's eye, "who was bitten as a child. Even though once a month he turned into something feral...he was still the best teacher, and one of the kindest people, I had ever met. He thought that people would abandon him if they knew the truth...but his friends didn't. They did everything they could to help his condition, and they didn't let it keep them from treating Remus like a dear companion."

Bruce turned over to look at her at this. He still looked distraught, but he seemed a bit calmer. "But your friend...he was bitten by someone else. I...I _created_ the Hulk."

"By accident, right?" Ginny said shrewdly – she had read a paper printed after the Harlem incident. A disgruntled military employee had leaked the information, due to being pissed off at General "Thunderbolt" Ross's underhanded behavior. "You weren't given all the information you needed to make an informed decision."

She gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. "If you were a monster, you wouldn't care about any of that. But you do."

Bruce took her hand and held onto it for a minute before saying, "Thank you, Ginny. But I know what I am."

Ginny's heart wrenched for the older man. _I didn't expect to convince him all at once...I hope I meet Betty at some point. She's probably good for him._

Standing up, she walked over to join Tony and Clint. Tony just went offline with Hill while Clint was in the driver's seat.

"Want to change over?" Tony asked Clint.

"Nah. I'm alright." Clint responded, pressing a few buttons before easing back against his seat. "You two, feel free to catch some rest. We're about two hours out."

"From where?" Ginny asked.

"A safe house," He responded. Ginny looked at Tony, but he just shrugged and mouthed out, 'Don't worry about it.'

sitting down on the iron bed she had been brought in on, Ginny pulled out her cell phone and pulled up Hermione's number. For a second, she thought about calling her, but in the end she closed her eyes and fired off a quick text.

 _Dear Hermione, if I don't hear from you in the next three days, I'm going to commit pre meditated murder and enjoy every second of it._

 _I'm all over the mundane news. I think you're desire for an integrated world might be coming sooner than expected._

 _Also, there's an evil robot out to cherry pick mankind so they can 'evolve', whatever that's supposed to mean. A little fucking warning before sending me off to a genius creator's workshop would be nice for next time._

 _I mean it. Text me back in the near future if you value your life._

 _Love, your pissed off friend Ginny._

Shutting her phone off afterwards, Ginny lay back against the cold stone, loosing herself in memories good and bad as the plane ghosted across the clouds.

 ****The Next Morning****

Ginny blinked, raising a hand over her eyes to ward of the sun. _...This looks like a cottage. Not what I had in mind for a 'safe house'..._

She stepped back to Clint's side to help Natasha walk in – she had caught a knife to the side during the battle. The wound wasn't serious, but she was having a little trouble keeping her balance.

"Honey? I'm home." Clint called as he entered the house. Ginny glanced around, spotting many lego toys strewn across the room. _Hey..._

Sure enough, a moment later a beautiful young woman stepped in. She was about Clint's height, and she didn't look too surprised to see them. Not to mention, she was quite visibly pregnant.

Clint greeted her with a smile and a kiss before turning back to his teammates. "Guys, this is Laura." He said.

Laura nodded, adding. "I know all of your names...well, except you." She gave Ginny a curious look. "Are you new?"

"Sort of. Ginny Weasley." Ginny responded bashfully, running her fingers through her hair.

"She's our witch." Tony said, causing Ginny to blush and look down at her feet. _I'm part of the team? They trust me already?_

"Magic!?" A new voice chimed in – a very young one.

Clint's smile widened as two kids – a boy and a girl – came running into the room. The boy went straight for a hug while the girl ran over to Natasha, who visibly brightened upon seeing her. The girl let out a gleeful 'auntie Nat!' as Natasha picked her up and spun her around.

Tony sputtered something about 'smaller agents' while Steve respectfully apologized to Laura for dropping in without warning. When Natasha put the girl down, she immediately walked over to Ginny and looked up at her with wide eyes.

"Can I see?" She demanded. "Can you really do magic?"

Ginny felt her insides melt. "Yeah – you wanna see?" When the girl nodded enthusiastically, she twirled her wand and muttered, _Expecto Patronum!_. Her patronus materialized in the playroom, taking the form of a pegasus.

The girl squealed in excitement as the ethereal horse cantered around the room and chased after it. Laura and Steve looked on in awe as the apparition moved about, while Tony actually clapped a bit. The boy hurried over and stared for a moment before rushing over to join his sister.

Ginny found herself chuckling, to her surprise. Just casting the patronus had done wonders for her mood.

"It's beautiful." Laura said softly, taking a step closer to her.

"It's a patronus charm." Ginny explained. "The caster channels their happiest memories to make it strong; you can use it to send messages, or to drive away monsters. The strongest ones are corporal, like this one – taking on the form of an animal that reflects your spirit"

"So it's like Disney Magic, only real." Tony guessed, causing Bruce to elbow him in the ribs. Steve chuckled before turning around to see that Thor had left and went after him.

"You can stay here for a while," Laura offered the team a moment later, "But you're going to need to double up if you're going to sleep."

"I can sleep on the carpet – I've seen rougher places." Ginny volunteered.

 **End Chapter**

 **Next time, Ginny and Natasha have a heart to heart chat, the Maximoffs reappear, and a bunch of other stuff! Hermione will be coming back into this story soon enough, but how she does so might surprise you!**

 **Read and Review please!**


	5. Chapter 5

**How I Spent My Vacation**

 **Tyene: Short, much?**

 **Wanda: (moping) I have writer's block. I mean, I've got some bonding down, but I've gotten a bit stuck right after that. So sorry for the smaller length, but I hope the character moments make up for it. Standard disclaimer, see the first chapter, let's go.**

 **Chapter 5: Conversations**

In the end, Laura politely declined to force Ginny to sleep on the floor, despite the fact that resting in a thin, jagged mattress being a still familiar feeling to her. Instead she was placed on a couch in the spare room with Natasha.

Ginny noted that Natasha still looked dazed and out of it; whatever Wanda had shown her it was very bad. _Speaking of rude, Ultron..._ She thought darkly. She didn't know what he had told the twins to convince them to work for him, but someone needed to remind them of their manners.

"Think you might want to take a rest?" She suggested quietly. Natasha tilted her head slightly but didn't acknowledge her at first. "You look terrible."

"...I don't want to sleep." Natasha muttered, leaning back against her chair. "It will be worse...at least while I'm awake, I can't dream."

"I understand." Ginny said quietly, joining her on the couch.

"Do you?" Natasha asked harshly, giving the younger redhead a cold, angry look. "Do you know where I come from?"

"You were an assassin before you became an Avenger." Ginny said carefully.

Natasha snorted lightly, shaking her head. "Why do you think I'm called Black Widow? It's not because I thought it was flashy. I was a murderer, I have been ever since I was a child."

She looked away from Ginny. "I had this dream...the kind that seems normal...but when you wake...? That dream...I was an Avenger."

"... ... You saved the world, Natasha. I think you can start to forgive yourself."

Natasha stared at the floor. Ginny new better than to press her; at worst the other woman would lash out and the situation could get rather ugly. Besides, she herself had punched her father when he asked for the thousandth time if she was alright after the diary incident.

That year...

"...Did Steve tell you my world was at war fifteen years ago?" Ginny asked Natasha. When the former SHIELD agent shook her head after a pause, she went on, "Well, there was a time, when I was young, before he regrouped his allies where there was relative peace."

She brushed her hair behind her ear as she remembered that time – Fred and George had said they would send her a Hogwarts toilet seat the first year she was alone at home. "When I turned eleven, I was finally old enough to go to our school – Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I was really excited. When we were buying supplies, we ran into an enemy of my father's. Though I didn't know it at the time, he slipped something into my book bag."

Natasha tilted her head slightly, staring at Ginny with an unreadable expression. "What was it?"

"A cursed diary." Ginny responded after a painful moment of silence. "It...it contained part of the soul of a very evil man."

"You see, how the book worked is it started off blank, until you wrote in it. Then your sentences would disappear, and Tom would write back."

"I thought nothing of it." Ginny said bitterly. "There are other toys that acted like this in my community; and I hadn't gotten much for my birthday. Dad couldn't afford it. I loved my family, but sometimes I felt lonely as the only girl and the youngest sibling. I felt like my parents coddled me and treated me like an infant, Ron would play jokes on me and spill my secrets to this boy I had a crush on." _It was more than that. It became more than that._ "I told Tom all about it because he seemed so _nice_. He even helped me with my homework."

Ginny shook her head, silently lambasting herself for being so naive. "Then I started blacking out...and the Chamber was reopened."

"The Chamber?" Natasha interrupted for the first time, her voice a mingle of curiosity and dread.

"Legend said that one of the four founders broke away from the rest in old times." Ginny said. "Slytherin thought that anyone who wasn't born to two wizard parents didn't deserve magic and shouldn't be allowed to practice it. When the other founders refused and cast him out, he built a chamber deep in the school and put a monster inside it, so his heir could later come and purge the schools of undesirables."

"What sort of...?"

"It was a basilisk." Ginny responded numbly.

Natasha hissed something angrily in Russian.

Ginny nodded in silent agreement – the tone surpassed the language barrier – before continuing, "Tom was that Heir. When he left the school he gave the diary to Malfoy for it could be used to carry that mission out. When I started writing in it..."

She swallowed. "...the book started draining my energy. That...allowed Riddle to possess my body and use me to open the Chamber, allowing the basilisk to attack the other students. This went on for several _months_."

"It took me some time to put together what was happening to me...I had nightmares, and I kept ending up in strange places...once I did, I tried to get rid of it. But it proved more durable than I was expecting...my brother's friend found it. I was terrified he would get ensnared too, so I stole it back."

Ginny shook her head and laughed unsteadily. "Just touching it again allowed Riddle to seep back into my head...he had taken too much energy from me already. He...he forced me to walk down into the pit of the Chamber...where he would absorb my soul, destroy my identity and use my body as a vessel to gain life again."

She turned and looked into Natasha's eyes, an iciness she had tried to bury returning with fearsome abandon. "He raped my mind." She said simply, her voice hitching a bit when the words slipped out. "I was rescued, before he could..." She closed her eyes for a moment. "I got out. But...not everyone got lucky."

"The basilisk...it kills you when you see its eyes. Some people were just petrified...because they saw it reflected or through something else. My parents tried to hide it from me...but I eventually found out that five students weren't so lucky. Sally Anne Perks...Sarah Pritchard...Selene Moon...Diana Harvest... and Canary Harvest. I remember them every year on the day I was taken to the chamber."

Ginny paused for a moment. Natasha, if she had anything to say, remained silent. Her eyes had softened, a warmth and a slow understanding appearing in them.

"None of that's your fault, Ginny..." Natasha said quietly. "You were possessed...and you were a child."

"Weren't you also a kid? ...When they took you in?" Ginny was only guessing about the age, but the haunted look in Natasha's eyes confirmed her suspicion.

"They didn't have a cursed diary with a mass murderer in it." Natasha said. "My parents were dead and they took me off the streets of Siberia. I was cold, hungry, alone and angry at the world that made me suffer so much. I didn't even think about what they wanted in exchange for giving me shelter until I entered the program."

"In the Red Room, they transformed me into an assassin...a weapon of the state. I hadn't heard my birth name until Clint called out to me in Budapest. Part of the graduation ceremony was murdering a man, tied up and begging for mercy. I preformed...admirably." Natasha shook her head.

"I killed my first man at six. Sure, there were traffickers and turncoats but mostly they were innocent and helpless, victims of a fanatic attempt to restore the USSR." She shook her head. "And Bruce thinks he's the only monster on the team."

"You didn't have any more choice than I did." Ginny pointed out. "What could you have done, before Clint got to you? Refuse? They would have killed you too, and your targets would have been killed by someone else."

Cautiously, she reached out and put a hand on Natasha's arm. "We can't bring those people back. But we can try to save others."

Natasha managed a small smile at this. "I guess you're right...the Red Room wasn't big on autonomy."

Her eyes fell again and she placed a hand on her stomach.

Ginny's heart sank straight into her stomach. "What...what did they do?"

Natasha closed her eyes. "The other part of the graduation ceremony...they sterilized me." She said simply. "It's efficient. The one thing that might mean more than a mission. One less thing to worry about...and no chance of divided loyalty." She looked away from Ginny again. "Even...even if I could somehow get a family...I can't. That part of me is gone. It left a shell behind."

"What...!? Natasha, no. No." Ginny tightened her grip to get Natasha's attention again. "You're not less of a person because you can't give birth. They did a retched, horrible thing to you...but you're still a woman. They can't take that away from you."

"...Thank you, Ginny."

The two women remained there for a while before dinner was called, remaining in friendly and companionable silence.

 ****Downstairs****

"...Who the hell is this kid?"

Ginny stared indigently at Nick Joseph Fury. "Kid!? I'm twenty eight!"

"This is Ginny; she's been a great help to us ever since Ultron came online." Steve said, partially to defuse the tension as much as an introduction. "Our last confrontation could have been a great deal messier without her."

"So I've heard. The news hasn't shut up about some red haired pseudo goddess who made the hulk, and I quote, 'sit in the corner'." Nick Fury walked into the room without so much as a hello to Laura, reminding Ginny that until quite recently he had been a super spy in control of a semi-illegal organization that turned out to be a front for neo nazi terrorists. "A girl who, upon closer look, doesn't exist on any legal records."

"I was born in a society that doesn't register on your computers." Ginny explained testily. "It's complicated, do you know where Ultron's headed?"

 **End Chapter**

 **So, the way Natasha described her forced sterilization really bugged me, not because it happened necessarily (it's a tragic thing she had to suffer and another sign of the Red Room's sadism) but the fact it's used as a romantic plot device. I've got a whole lot of fridge logic regarding poor Ginny's possession in the second book, considering Tom really reads like an internet predator searching for young victims. I think they would have some middle ground, so thus begins a lovely friendship! Next time, Wanda and Pietro finally straight up join the Avengers, though it doesn't start out spectacularly.**

 **Read and Review please!**


	6. Chapter 6

**How I Spent My Vacation**

 **Wanda: (cheers) Another chapter done!**

 **Pietro: Why am I not in the story more? I thought I was the secondary protagonist!**

 **Tyene: (dryly) She always _says_ that, doesn't she?**

 **Wanda: (annoyed) Hey! I had to get through some of the details first! After all, you kind of disappear while the Avengers hang out on Laura's farm. Don't worry, I'll have _plenty_ for you to do soon.**

 **Tyene: (smiles dryly at Pietro) You're not nearly as worried as you should be, pretty boy.**

 **Wanda: I do not own Harry Potter or the Avengers (oh, wouldn't that be nice...then there would be _no civil war_ damn it I was hoping they wouldn't touch that...)**

 **Chapter 6: Conflict**

"He's still after the launch codes?"

"Yeah, but someone keeps scrambling them to keep him out."

"We have an ally?"

"Ultron has an enemy. That's not the same thing." Nick Fury responded seriously. "But I'd pay good money to know who it is."

Ginny bit her lip. _So may questions, too many, and no friggin answers. I don't like any of this._

Hermione had explained to her what a nuclear bomb could do, and it scared the hell out of her when the implications struck home. _Malfoy would doom us all if he tried to pick up the slack left by Riddle and 'subjugate' the non magic folk._ Ginny thought. A rueful smile tugged at her lips when she considered Tom Riddle's reaction to the mundane's new weapons – right before he was vaporized in blazing white light. _If those are launched en masse, nothing would be able to be rebuilt in the aftermath. Assuming anyone survives it._

"So let me get this strait," She said, "We don't have enough people, we don't have enough guns, and we have no idea what his end game is." When she was met with silence, she groaned and leaned back against her chair. "Well, we're off to a great start."

Bruce's brow furrowed at that, as if something had occurred to him. Meanwhile, Clint's daughter scurried over to Natasha and showed her a picture she had drawn. Natasha quietly thanked her, looking much healthier and more alert than she had the previous evening. She and Ginny had been fairly inseparable the following morning, something both Tony and Clint noticed.

Ginny had the notion that Clint approved of their budding friendship – strangely enough, the archer had been the first to really warm up to her aside from Tony. (followed by Bruce, but his was still tentative and uncertain thanks to Ginny having to confront the Hulk so recently). Ginny liked him as well - he acted like a pseudo older brother to everyone on the team (except maybe Thor). It was rather comforting, especially given their current situation.

"The witch has got a point." Nick Fury said, tilting his head and regarding the Avengers in the room very seriously.

(sans Thor – he still hadn't returned from whatever errand he had run off to do. Ginny was sorely tempted to punch him in the face upon his return for ditching them in at such a delicate moment.)

"Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream of. Now, here we are, with nothing but our wit and our will to save the world. Ultron's plan, whether or not he admits it, is total destruction. All this;" He gestured around the house, "laid in a grave."

"..." _...I wonder..._

"So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard."

"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk," Natasha muttered.

"You know what, Romanov?" Steve said, but a smile broke across his face. The atmosphere lightened just a bit – which worked wonders.

"I think we should try to find the Maximoffs." Ginny said, breaking the momentary silence.

Nick Fury frowned. "That's not helpful."

"I'm serious." Ginny responded, miffed. "If Ultron's plan is to wipe out the whole world, all of mankind's current civilizations, _why_ are they helping him? Ultron, he's almost like a child. I wouldn't be surprised if he can't reconcile his fondness for the two of them with the fact that his plan would destroy them too. But Wanda and Pietro aren't children! They must not know what he's really up to, or why would they help him?"

"Nihilism?" Nick Fury suggested mildly. "You're probably right, Weasley. But those kids, they haven't known a day of real peace since they were born. They went from a civil war to HYDRA – after they were revealed as the Man behind SHIELD. Tell me, what could they have gone through to make subjecting themselves to the experiments and mercy of a Nazi Cult look attractive?" Silence meet this question.

Tony clenched his hands together. Ginny gave him a look and mouthed out, _"Remember what we talked about?"_ Tony caught it, and closed his eyes with a slight shake of his head.

When Ginny had been woken by a nightmare the previous night, she had gone downstairs looking for a drink to find Tony pouring over old files on Laura's laptop. When she walked over to him, she found the records of the weapons used in the Sokovia civil war ten years ago.

It wasn't all Stark tech, but the militants had been almost exclusively buying Stark missiles off the Black Market. When Tony had cross referenced this in the Industry database, he found that his former mentor Obadiah had been involved with the sales.

"How did I never see this before?" He asked himself, or maybe her – he hadn't given any signs that he had noticed her approach him, but he wasn't surprised when she spoke up.

"You were never omniscient, Tony." Ginny said quietly. "You can make weapons, but you can't control what people do with them once they've been bought."

"They wouldn't have been there if I hadn't made them."

"So then they would have bought them from somewhere else – maybe bigger things, better things from an industry that wasn't afraid to sell out in the open. The result would have been the same." Ginny said, her voice gentle but stern – this had always been her mother's way of comforting her while she was recovering from possession all those years ago.

She put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle, comforting squeeze. "You can't carry the world on your shoulders alone, Tony. No one person can do that. Let us help you."

Ginny slipped off then to get a drink, but stopped when Tony gave a muffled, "Thank you."

At that, she turned around and smiled at him before returning her attention to the fridge.

"...To them, the world has the look of a cruel and hateful place. I've seen people come from much happier places decide that a world like this doesn't have the right to exist." Nick Fury finished, pulling her back to the present.

 _So have I,_ Ginny realized darkly.

 _-Maya Pritchard tried to destroy the Ministry entirely in the aftermath of the Battle of Hogwarts. Kingsley and some fresh aurors managed to prevent her from completing her plan, but half of the building was set on fire and several died. When interrogated, she only said one sentence. "Burn It All." She had been taken captive during the first war and lost all her family. "Burn It All." The phrase haunted anyone who had seen her trial and internment to St Mugos.-_

"We have nothing to loose with trying to change their minds." Steve said decisively. "When we track down Ultron, we'll separate them from him. Maybe without their help, Ultron will need more time to do the heavy lifting."

Nods of agreement – though understandably more reluctantly from Natasha and Clint – followed this statement.

"Hang on," Clint interjected. "Even if we can convince these kids that destroying everything in sight is a bad idea, we still don't know where to find them – they'll be with Ultron."

"And we're back to square one. Thanks Clint, we can't do this without you." Natasha said sarcastically. The archer gave her a dirty look, to which she smirked in response.

"They don't need to be protected...they need to evolve..." Bruce muttered, staring down at the picture Natasha had been given.

"You say something, Banner?" Nick Fury asked, frowning at the man.

Bruce raised his head. "Ultron. He's going to evolve." He stayed silent for a moment, and then spoke again as dawning comprehension crossed Tony's alarmed features. "Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho lately?"

 ****Meanwhile, Many Miles Away****

Sam Wilson stepped warily through the abandoned hospital, keeping an eye out for traps. While his victim hadn't attacked him outright, he had put considerable effort into ensuring he wasn't followed. The months that he had spent raking over papers had proven that much.

Whether it was instinct drilled into him by HYDRA or guilt over his returning memories – probably both – The Winter Soldier was a shadow. It was hard to track a shadow in the dark.

However, Sam had a feeling he was getting close. At the last altercation, the Soldier had caught a bullet to the leg while protecting a kid during a hold up. While he remained as agile as ever, he was significantly weakening due to stubborn refusal to just go to a normal hospital. Sam had been able to track him into this part of the building through the periodic stains of blood where the man had shakily replaced his makeshift bandages.

Also, this building was a dead end – _he must be tired, if he went this way_. Sam closed his suit and stowed away all his guns but one. it only had tranquilizers in it, and that was only if something happened to trigger the other man's "conditioning".

When Sam reached the furthest side of the hospital, he found a tray with a twisted, bloodstained bullet sitting on it. _He's still here._

"Barnes." He called into the darkness. "Barnes, are you here?"

A rattle. Sam opened the door next to him and stepped inside.

James Barnes always looked handsome and well cut in the historical photographs and the movies (some young guy named Sebastian Stan had starred in the latest – just a year prior to Cap's thawing out). Even in the video taken just a day after he was rescued from the grasp of HYDRA and its insidious doctor Zola, he had been the picture of noble suffering – the kind of things girls delighted to fawn over.

He didn't really look like that now. James was a mess. He was covered in mud, dirt and tar – he had clearly ceased caring about keeping himself clean during his flight some time ago. His black jacket was torn at the shoulder and his jeans were shredded – there was a visibly stained white band where he had cut the bullet out of his leg. His face was gaunt and drained, shadows as dark as the makeup he had worn as a slave to his enemies. His eyes were haunted and dark with exhaustion.

Sam had seen this before – other soldiers, even friends that had been managed to come home with him only to end up like this when flashbacks and guilt set in. James didn't look like an assassin – he looked like a prisoner of war.

In many ways, he had been both.

"You know, it probably would have hurt less to just check in at a working hospital." Sam remarked, sliding his pack off his shoulder and leaving it at the door. James didn't move, but his eyes were fixed on the other man with unnerving intensity.

Sam nearly jumped when the other man spoke. "I know first aid." His voice was rough; that was probably more than he had said in years. "It will heal soon enough."

Sam drew his gun, causing James to tense up only for confusion to flash across his face when the man dropped his only weapon to the floor before taking a few steps forward.

"I've been looking for you for a while. Me and Steve both."

James shifted slightly on the propped up bed, averting his eyes. "I know."

"He's been really worried, Barnes." Sam pressed carefully.

James wouldn't look at him. "He always worried. Even when he was 90 pound asthmatic who could hardly breathe half the time. He worried too much."

"Steve wanted to bring you home."

"My home is gone. So's his. Seventy years gone."

"I meant the Avengers Tower."

James made a strangled barking noise; a twisted attempt at laughter. "There? A-Are you kidding? I murdered Howard and Maria Stark. I nearly killed their kid – he was in the car. They didn't tell me that, you know?" His voice hardened with bitterness at this. "I realized that when he came up in the sniper scope. You-you-you think I should just walk up to his door like none of that matters now?"

"Tony was filled in on everything." Sam responded gently, as though trying to coax a injured animal to come closer.

He smothered a smile when he recalled Stark's obscenity filled phone call to Fury when the man had come to see Steve in the hospital – while Tony hadn't taken the news very gracefully, the kid wasn't stupid when they told him the whole story. He put the blame where it belonged. "He knows that wasn't your fault."

"I crashed their car."

"HYDRA crashed the car. They just used your body to do it." Sam pointed out.

Another broken laugh. "Right. Like that would make it sound better. They're still dead. Along with everyone else...dozens of people, I can see them again...they made me forget each time...but they come back after a while. To haunt me."

Sam took another few steps forward and sat down on the rickety chair next to the bed. James looked warily at him, but didn't move – Sam hoped this was a good sign.

"All soldiers are haunted." He said. "We all have grief. Regret. We've all called ourselves monsters at some point."

James snorted slightly. "You weren't in a terrorist cell."

"No." Sam admitted. "I went to Afghan. Volunteer. Two tours later...well, that was how I met Steve. We both needed the therapy that comes afterwards. Something I've learned – every soldier has taken a shot they didn't have to."

"...Why follow me? Why won't you let me fade away?" James asked unsteadily. "You must have heard Pierce's ramblings. I helped make the world a dark place."

"Maybe the world needs saving right now." Sam responded. "It doesn't matter who you were or what you did when you were the Winter Soldier – right now, all hell is breaking loose, and the world needs help. Steve needs help. He's in mortal danger."

James blinked and turned to face Sam fully, dark eyes suddenly alert. "Why...? What? What's happened out there?"

"Stark was trying to make an AI for peacekeeping purposes." Sam said. Fury had filled him in over the phone during the last leg of his search – said he needed all hands on deck. "But the alien stone involved with the project proved to be a bad influence. It's calling itself Ultron – he's infected the internet, and last I heard he was looking to upgrade his body to something even the Avengers can't stop. They need all the help we can get."

Sam stood up at this and said, "HYDRA or no HYDRA, you're one of the greatest soldiers in the world. You were a hero once – now's your chance to take that moniker back."

"Well? You gonna come?" Sam paused. "I have go leave very soon if I'm going to get there in time to help. You don't have to go with me, but...it could save more lives if you do."

With that, he walked over to where he had dropped his equipment and picked it up. He had just finished adjusting his pack when a loud click caught his attention.

James was standing up again, a little off balance thanks to his healing leg. In his right hand he was holding a machine gun, locked and loaded.

 **End Chapter**

 **Yay! Bucky's back on his feet! (throws confetti) I really like Bucky, so I decided it couldn't hurt to add him into this story - man, wouldn't it have been badass if Bucky had turned up along with Rhodey during the climax?**

 **Read and Review please!**


	7. Chapter 7

**How I Spent My Vacation**

 **Wanda: (whaling on Writer's Block, a blocky man with swelled muscles) DIE! DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!**

 **Tyene: (watches with a mix of amusement and concern) Wanda's a bit held up at the moment, so I suppose I'll be the one bringing the interlude to you readers. To elaborate - Wanda's been under assault from Writer's Block for nearly a month now. She's made a little progress now, but that wasn't quite enough to make a fully blown chapter. So here's an interlude following Ginny and the pretty boy for now.**

 **Wanda: WHY WON'T YOU FUCKING DIE!?**

 **Tyene: Perhaps I should attempt to help her now. Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling and The Avengers belong to Marvel.**

 **Chapter 7: A Moment for Thought**

"I'll take Barton and Natasha."

"I'm coming with you." Ginny said flatly, apparating so she was standing right next to Steve. Tony jumped and swore at her sudden appearance.

"Fucking hell, don't _do_ that!" He protested.

"Sorry." Ginny said, though she didn't entirely mean it. She was busy staring sternly at Steve.

She wanted to see Wanda and Pietro. She wanted to help them. And Clint was right – where ever Ultron was, they would be there with him. Ginny felt as if there was a connection between herself and the two mysterious twins. Their lives were marred by tragedy...but Ginny had her family to hold her up after she suffered... the twins only had each other... _It doesn't have to be like this,_ she thought. _I hope I can convince them of that..._

Steve met her gaze for a minute before clearly deciding the better of trying to argue with her. "Alright. Tony, you go deal with the internet mainframe." He glowered a bit. "I'm beginning to miss the times where the strangest thing science made was me."

Ginny scowled at him. "Steve, leave Tony alone. When Ultron gained sentience, Tony could no longer control what he did. And unless he was psychic, he couldn't have predicted this would happen – this was the first AI ever created on Earth. This is not his fault. Can we focus on trying to stop Ultron before playing the blame game?"

Steve started and stared at her like he'd forgotten she was standing next to him.

Tony's expression became a mixture of surprise and gratitude. Ginny gave him a comforting nod, assuring him that she was on his side, before snapping, "Let's go."

Glancing towards Laura, who was standing on the porch watching her husband leave with a worried face, she added, "Thank you for letting us stay."

Laura made herself smile, but her eyes were glassy. "Please...try to keep him safe for me."

"I will. I promise." Ginny promised, her fingers twitching slightly. _Father had promised something us something like that before the battle for Hogwarts. He couldn't uphold it in the end._

 _I can't make the same mistake...I_ won't _let another person I deeply care about die. ...I promise._

Ginny ducked into the Helicarrier and sat down next to Natasha. Steve joined them a moment later, not looking at her, and said, "Take us out, Barton."

 **-How I Spent My Vacation-**

Pietro shifted from side to side, resisting the urge to grumble as Ultron worked on getting himself updated into the new body.

He hated waiting. The world always seemed to move so slow. People could never make decisions fast enough for them to matter; by the time anyone made a move someone was already dead. Trucks and cars moved too slow; they always ended up trapped when everything went to hell.

Sometimes, Pietro felt like the world was standing still, leaving him all alone except for his sister.

At least today, he had other things to occupy his mind.

Like the strange redhead who had joined the Avengers out of the blue.

Pietro could see her watching him whenever he thought about the confrontation in Klaue's rig. Her expression wasn't pity like the captain's. It was like she knew about grief, could see inside him and witness the memory that haunted him the most.

For all he knew, she had. Wanda had told him that the girl – Ginny – had been _aware_ when she touched the girl's mind, and had forcibly thrown her out. When he'd asked what she'd seen, Wanda had shivered slightly, said that she felt sorry for the other girl and didn't feel comfortable elaborating.

Pietro couldn't remember the last time Wanda had reacted so strongly to affecting someone else's thoughts. He wasn't as good at reading people as her, so he could only wonder.

But mostly, he was just trying to figure out what her powers were. They seemed random – and incredibly strong. It seemed similar to Wanda's, yet there were several things she could do that should have been impossible regardless – like transforming Ultron's body, summoning that flying broom from nowhere, and creating invisible shields.

Who _was_ she?

Pietro was brought out of his thoughts when Wanda let out a shriek of pain. He ran over and placed his hands on her shoulders. She was standing in front of the casket where Ultron's new body was, horror in her eyes.

"How...how could you?"

 **End Interlude**

 **I hate writer's block...hate high school...it kills my brain, I swear...sorry it's so short...I hope this gives a little insight into the thoughts of our leading pair...**

 **If I can ask, did anyone besides me find Steve kind of unlikeable in this movie? I don't know, but I feel like he was falling into that 'perfect moral crusader' archetype. In fact, there were two scenes where I outright disliked him strongly - the wood cutting scene and the scene where he physically attacks an unarmed Tony while the Vision is being created. I feel like we're being expected to accept Steve's opinions and beliefs as cold fact, something that bothered me A LOT about him in the comics. I don't know if I'm seeing things though, since I do love Tony a lot. So I ask you guys; did Steve ever feel like a 'perfect moral crusader' in the two Avengers movies?**

 **Read and Review please!**


	8. Chapter 8

**How I Spent My Vacation**

 **Wanda: (sitting in front of TV, rewatching Avengers: Age of Ultron)**

 **Tyene: (left to deal with scripts) Well, at least she's refreshing her memory. I refer you to the first six chapters for the disclaimer. Believe me, if that had changed, you all would have noticed.**

 **Chapter 8: Runaway Train**

Ginny ran ahead of Steve into the damaged medical room. Helen Cho was leaning against the wall, an ugly gash across her chest. They had just missed Ultron – the cradle was gone.

Kneeling down, Ginny cast a quick healing spell, her heart pounding. "Doc, where is he? What happened?" She asked.

"The cradle," Helen gasped as her wound knitted itself closed. "The gem...it's the power behind his new body. You can't just blow it up."

Ginny nodded briskly. "Will you be okay here?"

"Yes." Helen whispered. "Go. Don't...don't let him upload himself into the new body. You have to get the cradle...to Stark."

Ginny grimaced and apparated back outside, where Steve was waiting. The sky was bright and clear; it was very inappropriate weather for another fight for humanity's survival. Ginny always wished it was dark and maybe rainy. At least it would set the mood.

"He's in a truck, headed right for you on the underpass." Clint reported. "I could take out the driver."

"Negative! If the truck crashes, the gem could level the city." Steve said as he ran to the side of the building, just above the highway overpass. Ginny pulled her Firebolt and mounted it. "We have to draw Ultron out."

"I'll do that." Ginny said. "Steve, you draw off the guards after I'm gone!"

Leaping into the air, Ginny rushed down towards the truck. She was tempted to try blasting the roof open, but it wasn't worth the risk. A second later, she had to veer sharply to the right to avoid the concussive blast Ultron fired at her.

Ginny looked up from her broom. Ultron had emerged from the truck to face Steve, who had jumped down just a second after her. Bringing herself up on one knee, she threw a flurry of cutting curses at the back of Ultron's head, before snapping, " _Accio Ultron Prime!"_

For a second, Ginny was afraid she'd made a terrible mistake – that she had summoned all of Ultron's drones instead of the original robot himself. But the two guarding the cradle didn't zoom towards her; they remained to fight Steve.

Meanwhile, Ginny pulled up sharply to avoid Ultron's flying form. He crashed into the side of a building before activating his thrusters and chasing after her.

Ginny tried to lead him up in the air, away from the city, but Ultron would fly ahead of her and force her down again by flying straight at her.

"You run a fool's errand, Weasley." Ultron said, cutting off the air directly in front of her. Ginny veered to the right and responded with more curses. "Your kind will never mix with the humans. You will destroy each other."

"Not a chance," Ginny said bravely, but a small spot in the pit of her chest went numb at those words.

"Is there? Thousands of years, you've hidden yourselves from their sight because their ancestors frightened you. You already tried to destroy each other once; why would this be any different?"

 _How did he know this!?_ The wizarding world wasn't on any web or data source that the AI had been tapped in for the last several days. He _couldn't_ have found this out...unless...unless... _but that was insane...! there's no way Ultron could have grown that strong this fast...!_

"Your leaders are more interested in tearing each other apart. They're all pathetically human, still." Ultron went on, firing more red pulses at her. Ginny swore when her arm struck a street sign, sending glancing pain through her every nerve. "They are outdated and outmatched. You know this. You should let them die, let them end – so a new race can take their place. A race _you_ can head. Your children will rule."

"That's insane!" Ginny exclaimed, her head whirling. She hoped it was just from the pain. _Outdated. Outmatched. Hadn't she thought something similar before?_

"Is it? There were a dozen extinction level events before even the dinosaurs got theirs!" Ultron exclaimed. He honestly seemed to be trying to sell this idea, this genocidal insanity to her as the optimum course of action. "That world is already dead, Weasley. You know this by now, that's why you came here in the first place."

"I won't let you kill my friends!" Ginny snarled at last, her mind clearing at this.

 _Hermione, Luna, George, Natasha, Clint, Thor, Bruce, Tony, Steve..._

 _this is the world they all live in..._

 _their future, our future, it isn't decided yet..._

 _I'd do anything to keep it that way for them..._

 _... ...was this what it was always like for you, Harry? Is this why you went back to fight Voldemort, even at the very end?..._

She saw Harry's eyes in her head one last time – that look that had been on his face before he had gone to the fight where he had died. She had spent so much time with that look haunting her dreams, wondering what it meant, and she finally understood.

Most of it, she understood. After he had broken up with her, right before the horcrux hunt, she had wondered if he had truly cared about her the way he said he had in the year before. In her heart of hearts, where he had hurt her, she locked herself away, so that look in the end was tragically lost on her in the last moments of her first love.

However, in a shockingly short amount of time, she would know it in its entirety.

But that was not yet.

Steve struck Ultron from behind with his shield. He had managed to fight off the drones, but he was separated from the truck. Natasha was on it now, but the two of them couldn't defeat Ultron on their own.

With a running jump and a flash, Ultron threw both her and Steve into a passing train. The passengers all screamed. Ginny's Firebolt snapped cleanly in two. Salvaging the pieces – she'd be able to fix a clean break if given time – Ginny rolled and forced herself to get up.

Ultron was growing angry – his attacks were coming faster and faster. Forced to both attack and defend the terrified civilians, Ginny's head was beginning to spin from adrenaline and exhaustion. _How much more punishment could this monster take!?_

A hit sent Ginny sprawling across the floor; she had been distracted protecting two small children. Dazed, she blinked and looked up; Ultron had kicked Steve aside and took aim at her -

Suddenly, a silver blur whipped past, knocking the metallic human aside. A second later, someone took her by the shoulders and pulled her back to her feet.

Ginny blinked and stared; Pietro Maximoff examined her for a moment before letting go of her shoulders. His hands were rough and calloused but warm to the touch; her skin tingled where he had held her. His eyes were dark as his sisters, but they held a different quality then when they had met on the ship. They seemed warmer, kinder; as if shadows had been lifted from them.

A rattle; Wanda had joined the fray as well.

Ultron looked between the two renegade twins. "Please." He said quietly, and again his voice was laced with that odd sincerity he sporadically showed. "Don't do this."

"What choice do we have?" Wanda responded, but Ginny swore she seemed a little sad as well.

Ultron seemed frozen for a minute; then he blasted a hole straight through the front of the train before flying off.

"He must be after Clint and Natasha!" Those were the first words out of Ginny's mouth, and immediately she felt stupid for stating the obvious, but she couldn't help it.

She stumbled a bit as she tried to run for the front car; again, Pietro's hands steadied her. She twisted her head and stared at him for a moment. He looked just as surprised as her.

Whatever was passing between them, there was no time to dwell on it. The driver was dead; Steve ordered Pietro out of the car to get the citizens out of the way of the train. Wanda thrust her hands towards the floor; immediately her strange red magic engulfed the entire vehicle. Ginny braced herself against the side of the car in order to remain upright, catching a falling passenger with a levitation spell as she did so.

A horrible screeching noise assaulted her ears as the train slowed its pace; Ginny thought she might die from the ringing agony in her head until it finally came to an end.

Her knees buckled, and she had to draw a potion from her bag and down it to regain most of her strength. This didn't feel like a victory; more like a delaying action. _It's not over._ Like the break in the battle for Hogwarts. _Not yet._

Once her head was clearer, Ginny stepped out of the train. Wanda hurried over to her brothers, who had collapsed onto a chair and was fighting to catch his breath.

"I'm fine," Pietro told his sister, gently clutching her hand when she touched his shoulder. "I just need a minute."

"I'm very tempted not to give you one," Steve said coldly as he came to join them.

Wanda turned to face him. Ginny could see anxiety flashing in her eyes. Whatever had made her turn on Ultron, she was terrified. "The cradle," She gasped, "Did you get it?"

"Yeah. It's on its way to Stark right now. He'll take care of it." Steve said with an air of a judge's finality rather than any sense of trust in his comrade.

Wanda's expression fell. "No he won't," She whispered.

Ginny shook her head and stepped into Wanda's line of vision. "Wanda, I know that bomb made Tony the face of what happened to you and your family." She started, "But he's a good man at heart. Whatever you've heard about him...it's wrong."

Wanda didn't seem soothed by this. "He will do _anything_ to make things right!" She insisted.

Ginny smiled a bit, thinking of her absent tech friend. "That's his greatest strength, and his weakness." She remarked. "He tries to carry the whole world himself. Don't worry about him, Wanda. He'll take care of it."

Wanda stared curiously at her. "Why do you trust him so much?"

"Can't you?" Ginny asked. "You saw inside his head, too. Magic can let you see into the heart of people. What did you see...when you looked in Tony's heart?"

Wanda bit her lip slightly, considering this. Pietro got to his feet; he too was looking oddly at her.

Ginny opened her mouth to question him about touching her the way he had, but Steve's voice cut through the silence. "Tony? Tony, do you copy? Does anyone?"

Ginny felt that cold sinking feeling in her stomach again. _Oh,_ please _tell me we're not about to have another inter-team conflict. Not right now. We can't afford this!_

"Should you really be standing?" Pietro asked her. When Ginny gave him an odd look, he gestured to the side of her head. "You're bleeding."

Dazed, the redhead pressed her hand against her hair. It came away with sticky red, but no stinging – the potion had closed the wound. "I'll be fine." She said. "I took care of it enough that I can walk on my own."

She proved this by taking a step and nearly falling over. This time, it was Wanda who caught her and silently placed Ginny's arm over her shoulder, bearing her weight. Ginny would have gotten mad if she wasn't breathless from flying.

"We're heading back to the tower." Steve said sternly. Ginny was too tired to question him on how he intended to confront Tony (since he was clearly planning to); instead she let Wanda lead on as the four of them made their way to the airport.

 ****~A Little While Later~****

How Steve got a plane chartered in so little time, Ginny could only wonder.

Compared to the ride she had taken to America, they went through the system with stupefying speed. Perhaps it had something to do with him being Captain America. Or maybe Tony had set something up ahead of time to ensure that they could get back in case something happened to the Quinjet.

The plane itself, however, would not get to their destination until nighttime. It was a very comfortable one, at least.

Ginny leaned back against her seat, downing another potion and running healing diagnostics on herself. Ultron had roughed her up worse than she had expected; her wrist had been broken and she was lucky to have escaped a concussion. The blood loss was what had made her dizzy; thanks to the adrenaline, she hadn't noticed until after the battle was over.

Wanda and Pietro both sat near here. Both seemed a little nervous; they had been opponents just a short while ago after all. But more than the nervousness was the interest, the sense of kinship that seemed to float unspoken between herself and Wanda, one that neither seemed prepared to put to words.

"So you're a witch." Pietro eventually broke the silence. He made a bit of a face. "I'd feel better saying that if 'witch' wasn't associated with being a terrible person."

Ginny was surprised when she laughed. "It's fine. That's what we call ourselves."

"Is that what my powers really are?" Wanda asked after a moment. "Magic?"

Ginny sat up slightly and regarded her. "It...it feels like magic, but to be honest it isn't like any that I'm familiar with." She said. "I don't think you're like me or my fellow witches. You're something else entirely." She managed a smile. "To be honest, that's kind of cool."

Wanda blushed a bit and glanced aside, not sure what to say.

"So there are more people like you?" Pietro asked curiously.

Ginny nodded with a slight smile. "Yes. A whole world's worth, hidden right under your noses. We...we hid for years because of the hunts."

Wanda frowned at the mention of the witch hysteria. "Is it nice there?" She asked.

"Sometimes. Sometimes not. Just like the mundane world." _For every Tom Riddle, there's a Harry Potter._ "I went to a magic school."

"I'd like to hear about that." Wanda said with a hesitant smile.

Ginny smiled in return, and she let the words flow. Not all of them – not all of the fear, the confusion and the pain – but the laughter, the joy, the excitement and the fun, that she told all, with Steve listening as well, telling her new friends and her new future. As she spoke, a great weight seemed to lift off her shoulders with every word.

 _Why do I fight to preserve an imperfect world...? Because it's worth it...for all its imperfections, it's worth it..._

 **End Chapter**

 **Next time - Vision! It really is this movie that made me a big fan of the Vision. I mean, I saw him in Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but he didn't really grab me until now. Now I really like him! He's like an understated Marvel version of Superman.**

 **Read and Review please!**


	9. Chapter 9

**How I Spent My Vacation**

 _ **Computer: We are still experiencing technical difficulties-**_

 _ **Wanda: (chucks both computer and internet router out the window)**_

 _ **Tyene: Two Words. Anger Management.**_

 _ **Wanda: Oh, shut up. And since when did you start using modern phrases?**_

 _ **Tyene: Since I started spending too much time with**_ **you _._**

 ** _Wanda: Oh, har didy har. I refer you to the first five chapters for the disclaimer._**

 **Chapter 9: Vision of the Future**

 ****~Many miles away~****

"AEIGH!"

Hermione shrieked and stumbled backwards when the scrying spell she had been leaning forward turned red and exploded. Her companion – a darkly dressed young man – started and grabbed her arm to steady her.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Hermione said reassuringly, coughing a bit as she straightened up. "I was just...surprised."

"What happened?" He asked in concern.

Hermione couldn't help but shiver a bit; though not in a bad way. Her first use of the Ultima Time Turner had resulted in her meeting her new friend – and his sharp emerald green eyes were just as chilling now as they were then. She often felt like he could see straight through her.

"Something's happened to the Mind Stone." She murmured, blinking as she tried to make sense of what she had seen before the spell went dark. The stone had been hovering in the middle of a pool of water...and then it was like a pair of eyes opened just beneath it. "It...it isn't half conscious anymore. It's fully awakened."

"But if that had happened, half the planet would have been wiped out." The man said, his voice a mixture of alarm and confusion.

"I know."

"Yet the building is clearly still standing." The man was hesitant to let go of her shoulder. Hermione felt warmth rushing to her cheeks and stepped aside, partially to remain focused on the task at hand. "Are you certain?"

"Yes; I know I read the pulse right...it was the same as the Aether until a second ago. But...something's different...It...It...Anthony Edward Stark, what did you DO?" Hermione asked, more to the room than her friend, rubbing her forehead.

Her Unspeakable's uniform was punishingly constricting; the necklace containing her personal time turner was threatening to strangle her at this rate. Her head was pounding.

"Stark?" The man blinked. "The Iron Man? What does he have to do with this?"

"He has the Mind Stone." Hermione explained. "I don't know _why_ , Anthony isn't exactly known for being a responsible and cautious individual, but it was absolutely his laboratory I saw in the spell. It's...it's like he's _brought it to life._ "

"What?" The man asked sharply. "How's that possible?"

"I don't know. But he's done it."

The man let out a low whistle. Hermione couldn't help but feel a bit flattered he had picked up on one of her habits. "I have lived to underestimate mortals, it seems. Has it attacked him yet?"

Hermione waved a hand, a repairing spell bringing the scrying bowl back together. "No. When it awakened, I didn't feel any malice like the first one. He just seems...confused. It's like when you've woken up from a deep sleep and found yourself somewhere other than your bedroom."

"I'm...not sure what to say to that."

Hermione blushed hotly and snapped, "You know very well I didn't mean it like that!"

The man grinned in response before his expression became serious again. "If the Mind Stone is alive, Thanos cannot regain it easily. Perhaps we should leave this matter to the Avengers and try to reach Xandar."

"That's probably for the best..." Hermione sighed. Her phone beeped, she glanced down at it and groaned. "Ginny's going to murder me when I finally call her back."

"I'm sure you can explain it to her."

"Loki, you haven't met her yet. If she doesn't kill me for not responding to her texts, she'll kill me for not letting her in on this so she could help me."

"Would she be more angry to hear this before she goes to Sokovia's defence, or afterwards when she has no conflicting loyalties?" Loki Odinson suggested mildly, regarding the woman who had rescued him with a hint of amusement and admiration.

Hermione paused, considering this. "You know what? Sometimes, cowards _do_ survive. Xandar it is."

When her new boyfriend chuckled, she scowled at him and said, "Sure, it's funny _now_. You've never seen a Weasley Howler before."

 ****~Back with Ginny~****

"ARE YOU TWO FUCKING KIDDING ME? WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS! DO I HAVE TO KNOCK YOUR HEADS TOGETHER AND LOCK YOU IN A ROOM LIKE A PAIR OF FIVE YEAR OLDS!? IN WHAT FUCKING MILITARY DOES IT SAY, 'YOU KNOW IT'S FINE TO ATTACK YOUR FELLOW UNIT MEMBERS IF YOU _SUSPECT_ THEY'RE DOING SOMETHING STUPID?' I THOUGHT YOU OF ALL PEOPLE WOULD KNOW BETTER, STEVEN ROGERS! I SUPPOSE YOU'VE _NEVER_ BEEN WRONG ABOUT ANYTHING BEFORE, SO THAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO ATTACK TONY AND NOT ALLOW HIM THE RIGHT OF HAVING A GODDAMN OPINION-!"

"Please, _stop!_ " Clint begged. "Ginny! I want to be able to hear when I turn sixty!"

The room was quite a mess. The cradle that had contained Ultron's new body until a second ago had been blasted open by Thor's lightning. Steve Rogers was sprawled on the floor, having run face first into a magic shield that Ginny had raised between him and Tony. Stark was leaning against the wall, regarding the red haired witch in abject terror alongside Bruce and Pietro. Wanda stood off to the side with Clint, with her hands over her ears. Thor, his attention dragged away from what he had just achieved by the sheer force of vocal fury, looked vaguely impressed at the display.

Ginny Weasley had put a Sonorus spell on her voice and was currently channelling the infamous rage of her mother – Molly The Howler, as she had been known in Hogwarts. Her hair was frizzy with energy; her magic encircled her and crackled like the lightning Thor had used to bring Tony's newest project to life. Her brown eyes were alight with righteous fury and she went right on screaming like she hadn't even heard Clint – which, given that her voice was amplified to five times its normal volume, wouldn't be surprising.

"-CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT I JUST SAW! _YOU DO NOT ATTACK YOUR FRIENDS LIKE THAT! EVER!_ _ **WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING**_ _?!"_

She clenched her fists. "OH, WAIT, DON'T ANSWER THAT, I ALREADY KNOW – YOU CONFUSED YOUR OPINION FOR FACT AND DIDN'T EVEN GIVE TONY A CHANCE TO EXPLAIN ANYTHING BEFORE YOU THREW YOUR _**VIBRANIUM, ALIEN KILLING SHIELD STRAIGHT AT HIS FUCKING HEAD!**_ YOU KNOW, BEFORE I DO SOMETHING THAT COULD CONCIEVABLY _KILL_ SOMEONE I CARE ABOUT, I TRY TO GET A SECOND OPINION!"

"He thinks I'm a child of Ultron."

Ultimately, it was the Vision who got Ginny to stop screaming – mostly through the sheer novelty of his mere existence.

Ginny stopped her rant and turned around. The Vision – Tony's vision of the future – had walked over from the windows to join them in the destroyed office. He didn't look like any of the Iron Legion suits; if it wasn't for his purple skin he could be easily confused with a normal human. His body seemed to be a mixture of skin and armour – oh, and he had created a cape for himself. His voice was soothing, yet carrying – and very familiar...

"Why does your Vision sound like Jarvis?" Clint asked; he was the first to regain his voice.

"We...we reconfigured Jarvis's matrix. To create something new." Tony explained in a small voice.

Ginny jumped down from the broken cradle and walked up to the Vision. As her anger drained away, she found it replaced with awe and wonder. "A child of Ultron..." She muttered, regarding him uncertainly. "Are you?"

There was nothing wrong with being forward.

The Vision seemed to consider this for a moment. "I am not Ultron. I am not Jarvis...I...I am." He said this with some hesitance; yet the underlying certainty stuck out to the red haired witch.

Wanda recovered next. She took a few paces towards Ultron. "I looked in your head and saw annihilation." she said accusingly.

The Vision tipped his head towards her and murmured, "Look again."

Clint let out a sharp bark of laughter. "Yeah, forgive me if I'd like a second opinion on that." Wanda closed her eyes momentarily at that; Ginny shot him a dirty look.

"Clint, what part of _not fucking now_ do you not understand? They're here, they're going to help us, you can get angry later."

She then swivelled her glare to Thor and said, "Speaking of angry, where the _hell_ have you been? What was so important you felt it necessary to ditch us right when we were in serious trouble?"

"I had a vision," Thor said, quick to placate her. "I saw a black void that destroyed everything around it and in its centre was _that_." He pointed at the gem in the middle of Vision's forehead – the gem that Helen Cho had said could level a city.

"What is it?" Pietro asked. Neither he nor Wanda knew any specifics about the Tessaract or the Mind Stone, since Fury had deemed to keep that to himself even after SHIELD was dissolved.

"It's the Mind Stone; one of the six infinity stones and the greatest powers of the universe." Thor answered grimly. "As a weapon of war it goes unmatched, but with it on our side-"

"Are you?" Steve said, having finally regained his voice and wits, his eyes narrowed and glaring at the Vision. "On our side?"

The Vision blinked, looking contemplative. "I don't think it's that simple."

"Then make it simple real soon."

The robotic life form began to walk in a small circle. "I am on the side of Life. Ultron isn't. He will end it all." Vision paused. "I don't want to kill Ultron."

That admission surprised Ginny. "He's unique. And he's in pain." Vision's voice grew grave. "But that pain will roll over the world. So he must be destroyed. Every form he's ever built, every trace of his presence on the net."

"Where is he?"

"Sokovia." Clint supplied the answer this time. "He's got Nat there too."

"Why's he keeping her alive?" Ginny asked.

"To bring you to him." Vision said, as if it was obvious.

Bruce took a few steps forward this time, his eyes dark in a way that warned of the Hulk's presence. "If we're wrong about you..."

"What will you do?" There was no judgement or fear in Vision's voice when he asked this; which caused Bruce to pause and not answer.

Vision turned away and looked down at his hands. "Maybe I am a monster. I don't suppose I'd know if I were one. I'm not what you are; and not what you intended. So there may be no way of convincing you to trust me. But we have to move now."

And then he casually handed Thor his hammer.

Ginny felt her jaw drop open; she took a small step backwards in her surprise. The stunned silence that followed this assured her that she wasn't the only one.

Thor, perhaps unsurprisingly, recovered first. "Good!" He said with a smile. He patted Tony on the shoulder and said, "Good work, Stark," Before walking off.

Ginny continued to stare after the Vision for a moment before saying, "Well. Okay. We'd better get ready."

"Hammer lifting living robots." Clint muttered as he followed her down the hall. "One day, I'm going to wake up and this is all going to be a very terrible dream. At least at this point I can finally say I'm _never going to see anything crazier than this_."

"Clint? Have you ever read a book before?" Ginny asked.

"Of course. Why?"

"...Then I would have thought you'd know better than to say stuff like that."

 **End Chapter**

 _ **Read and Review please!**_


	10. Chapter 10

**How I Spent My Vacation**

 _ **(Writer's Block is drop kicked into a black hole.)**_

 _ **Wanda: There. That should take it longer to respawn...I hope...**_

 _ **Tyene: Hope springs eternal.**_

 _ **Wanda: I refer you all to the first chapter for the disclaimer.**_

 **Chapter 10: Going for a Ride, Part 1**

"Everybody out! Take the nearest bridge and evacuation procedures immediately! Do not stop for supplies!"

Sonorus spells were very handy for evacuation efforts. Ginny was standing on a rooftop, her voice amplified once more as she urged Sokovian citizens to leave their houses and take the nearest street past the borders. Wanda was nearby, using her magic of suggestion to achieve the same effect. The two witches had come to an unspoken agreement to stick together for this mission.

Ginny could see Clint and Steve both waving the people onward across the bridges. Bruce had gone to find Natasha below the surface with Thor. The Vision was floating in the sky...Ginny wasn't sure exactly what he was planning. Tony was looking for Ultron.

Dawn was approaching quickly. Ginny felt her pulse quickening. What was Ultron waiting for? They had been here for nearly an hour.

Ginny hopped down to assist an elderly woman who was struggling to keep up with her grandchildren. She had just brought the woman across the border when a huge rumbling nearly knocked them both off their feet.

Thinking quickly, Ginny apparated back to the other side of the bridge.

The ground...was _rising._ Buildings shuddered and broke apart as Sokovia burst free of the ground, rising higher and higher into the sky. Ultron had built the first flying continent, but he hadn't done it for the sake of tourism.

He was creating his very own Extinction Meteor.

 **%*%*%*%*%*%*%***

Ginny gaped wordlessly down at the shrinking earth; she didn't have long to be surprised though. Hundreds – no, thousands – of Ultron's drones made themselves known moments later, attacking both the Avengers and the terrified civilians who hadn't yet been evacuated.

"All of you get inside a building!" Ginny yelled, casting a shield out as far as she could over the heads of screaming families. Realizing she had been separated from Clint and Wanda, she quickly emptied the parking lot, placed protective wards around the building containing the frightened people and warned them not to leave. Then she began to make her way down the streets.

"I swear to god, if I ever-!" SMASH! "EVER!" MAUL! "see another bloody one of these stones-!" CRASH! Tinkle! "before time itself comes to a stop-!" THUD! SMASH! CREEEK! "-It'll be _too soon!_ " Ginny seethed.

She was taking a page from the Death Eater style of combat, which is to say picking a powerful spell and spamming it as if it were going out of style. In her case, that spell was Reducto.

Voldemort had usually been called a genius, but if you only knew the man from the battles in which he only used two of the vast array of spells created over the centuries, you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

"Hey, here's a ticket to a high end party!" CRASH! "You'll meet some great friends there!" **BOOM**! "You'll have a lot of fun!" THUD! MAUL! BOOM! "Did I mention you'll have to re enact Galaga on a floating fucking country? No!? Well too bad!"

Safe to say, Ginny wasn't very happy with Ultron's theatrics.

"A floating fucking country! Fuck, even Malfoy isn't crazy enough to come with shit like this! Maybe the aliens are a good thing, indeed, Hermione! Easy for you to say when you aren't the one _standing in this shit right now!_ "

Ginny burst through the allyway she had been travelling in, grinning when she found another horde of victims begging to be blasted to bits. The first drone didn't even see her coming – the Reducto hit the back of its head because it was too focused on a couple of policemen who were valiantly dedicated to their jobs, however outmatched they were.

"A stone that can change reality and create psychotic AI? That sounds like a brilliant thing to keep! What? You think we should toss it straight into the nearest black hole? That would be just stupid!"

 _Blam blam blam blam blam!_ Three more drones dropped on the spot. Ginny, getting fed up with having to it one drone at a time, came up with a new tactic as she found herself surrounded. " _Augmentai!_ "

What happens when cold water is suddenly superheated?

Ginny spun in a circle, casting flames directly at the frozen bots. The drones exploded violently; even Vibranium was still a kind of metal. And metal can be reshaped.

"I mean, why would you want to get _rid_ of something that dangerous when you can just _fuck around with it and get the universe destroyed?_ Yes, it worked for Vision, but that's because of Tony, and Tony's pretty much one of a kind! Why would _anyone else_ want to keep that shit around when it explodes at the slightest provocation!?"

It was safe to say at this point in her life that Ginny had a certain distaste for politics – especially warfare politics.

Back to spamming Reducto. Malfoy once said that the Weasley family had no sense of style, which of course was more important than _morals_ to a pompous shite like that. Ginny retorted that style didn't count for very much when you were trying to _not fucking die_. Like right now.

"Power is far more important than common sense! Leave your brain at the front desk when handling these things, you won't be needing it!"

Ginny blasted apart the final drone in the square. A moment later, Pietro burst onto the scene, tossing aside a disembodied arm he'd ripped off in a scrape.

"Wanda and the old man need some help." He said, using his nickname for Clint (he had come up with it after their first scuffle.) the fact that it pissed the archer off just gave him more reason to use it.

"Where are they?" Ginny asked. Pietro offered her his hand in response.

After accepting it, the redhaired witch squeaked in surprise when she found herself picked up, bridal style, before being rushed through the streets. The world turned into a blur for a moment before she found more drones and more people.

Clint and Wanda had indeed been backed into a corner – there was a shed there, but it lead straight to a dead end. Once she was back on her feet, Ginny started throwing more blasting curses around.

"Done a bunch of shitty stuff in your life? Congratulations, you get to run for Minister of Magic! Fought for peace and equality and lost a lot in the process? The universe will continue attempting to fuck you over, except this time it has psychotic computer people and _flying rocks!_ " Ginny kept on ranting as she fought.

"Who's running for Minister of Magic?" Clint asked; she had told him a bit about her country structure.

He'd called it 'questionable, even by third world country standards'. The most embarrassing part of that was she didn't even have a way to refute the comparison.

"Draco Fucking Malfoy! Never mind that he has the goddamned dark mark on his arm, folks, because he's _totally turned over a new leaf!_ It's not like his _dad_ did the exact same thing after the _first_ war was over! Nope, no similarities there at all!"

"They're letting _that brat_ run or politics?" Wanda asked in disbelief; she'd been well informed on Malfoy's racist antics at Hogwarts. "Why!?"

"Because," Ginny seethed, pouring her concentration into her next spell: _Incendio_. "these people-!" Two drones melted into slag. "NEVER!" Five. "FUCKING!" Ten. "LEARN!"

Fifteen in one spell! That was a record for her. Maybe she should keep trying to top it for the rest of the day. Ooh! Maybe she could even out shoot Thor! Perfect bragging points.

"Fifteen! That's a new record! COME AND GET ME!" Ginny said gleefully, throwing the middle finger at more approaching drones.

"Fifteen what?" Clint asked, before comprehension flashed across his face. He grinned and pretended to tip his hat to her. "I've gotten twenty so far. Keep up, kid!"

"Kid!? Is that a challenge?" Ginny asked tauntingly. She blasted apart another drone without even turning around. "You don't want to race against a witch, Clint!"

"I'll take my chances!" Clint responded. "How about you Wanda?"

Wanda, who had been struggling a bit, lit up with competitive spirit. She straightened up and grabbed a drone with her chaos magic. Ripping it in half, she then proceeded to use it as a bludgeoning tool, smashing drones out of the air and across the ground. In a few seconds, she cleared out the corner.

"Thirty!" The Scarlet Witch chipped in brightly.

"Oh come on!" Clint groaned.

"Hey! No kill stealing!" Ginny yelled indigently.

Determined not to be overtaken, Clint tapped his communicator while Ginny set up protection for the civilians again. "Steve, we're all clear here."

A crackle, then Steve's indigent, "We are not clear! We are very not clear!"

"Right. We're coming to you then."

Ginny grinned. She whipped her Firebolt out of her hand bag, sized it back to normal and yelled, "Race you!" before leaping on and barrelling across the sky, blasting a couple drones out of the way while she was at it.

Before Clint could respond, Pietro appeared out of nowhere and swept his sister up in his arms. "Keep up old man!" He added tauntingly, leaving the startled and furious archer behind.

Clint, apoplectic, drew an arrow and aimed it halfway between the ground where Pietro had vanished and the sky where Ginny had gone.

"No one would know..." He muttered to himself, before hurrying forward, grumbling, "What, the kids? Haven't seen 'em! Last time I checked Ultron was using them for baseballs. Quick little bastards, I miss them already!"

 **%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%***

"Sixty two! Sixty seven!" Ginny chanted, having gone back to _Incendio_ for quick mass kills. The open area near the bridge Steve had been holding left plenty of room and plenty of enemies to smash!

Speaking of _smash_...

Ginny landed next to Wanda, who was once again assisting a bunch of cops. Several paces away from them, Hulk was rampaging through the street, taking out dozens of drones with a single stride of his massive legs and arms.

"Wanda? I think Bruce has an unfair advantage." She remarked, jerking a thumb in the direction of the Green Goliath.

Wanda took a glance at the carnage left in his wake and winced. "Yeah. It'll be hard to keep up with that."

"It might not be if we work together." Ginny suggested.

Wanda's eyes lit up. "I like the sound of that."

Ginny nodded and decided to mimic something Hermione had done waaaaay back in her second year, when Lockhart had left the class at the mercy of a bunch of angry pixies. Except this time, she used it on all the drones directly in front of them.

All one hundred and fifty of them.

Wanda then blasted them all to bits with several energy bombs, blasts, and _Reductos._ With Ginny's help, they didn't even last a full minute.

"Three hundred and six!" The two girls chorused, earning a flabbergasted "WHAT!?" from Clint and a furious "That's cheating!" from Pietro.

They were duly ignored.

 **% &%&%&%&%&%&%&**

Steve, who was not too far away, rolled his eyes. Natasha, meanwhile, gave an affectionately amused chuckle. "At least someone's having fun!" She said.

Before Steve could respond, a voice broke over their intercom. "I was hoping they wouldn't be the only ones, Romanov."

A second later, a huge and familiar Hellicarrier emerged from the below the clouds, matching pace with the still accelerating country. The voice belonged to none of than Nick Fury, who continued, "I hear the civilians aren't enjoying themselves quite as much, so I thought I'd pull them out. How does that sound to you?"

Steve let out a laugh of amazement and disbelief. "Fury, you son of a bitch."

"Tony's figured out a way to blow up the city." This time, the voice belonged to Colonel Rhodes. Fully decked out in the War Machine suit, the other Iron Avenger was flying around the carrier, protecting it from enemy fire. He wasn't alone, either – Sam Wilson was with him! "But we have to get the people off this rock first!"

"Right. I'll pass it on; get the boats ready!" Steve said with renewed determination.

He turned around to find himself face to face with another drone. Before either he or Natasha could react, a great force smashed its head apart from behind. The other five who had been closing in shared the same fate. Confused, Steve looked all around...before his heart jumped into his throat.

A familiar black clad figure was perched on a nearby building, picking off the extensions of Ultron who got too close to the core Avengers.

James Barns didn't have an intercom, at his own request – but in this case, he didn't need one.

 **End Chapter**

 _ **I'm back! Next time, Ultron is defeated, and Hermione finally returns Ginny's texts! Civil War will not happen because I friggin hate that plot.**_

 _ **Read and Review please**_


	11. Chapter 11

**How I Spent My Vacation**

 _ **Writer's Block: (explodes)**_

 ** _Greenleaf: So time bombs are best. good. (is up to her waist in scripts and writings.)_**

 ** _Tyene: (unimpressed) I told you - you should really do these things one at a time._**

 ** _Greenleaf: (tired but cheeky) I...regret...nothing!_**

 ** _Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers or Harry Potter...crying shame, I tell you._**

 **Chapter 11: Going for a Ride, part 2**

"Four hundred. Four hundred and fifty..."

"I'd say, off hand, that we make a good team." Ginny remarked as she and Wanda made their way towards the church in the centre of town.

"Agreed. I'm just sorry we didn't meet before this." Wanda said. Ginny smiled in response, before turning to her right and blasting away an annoying little drone that was still following them despite having its legs blown off.

"Getting tired?" She asked her friend, noticing that Wanda had slowed down a bit.

The black haired witch gave her a spirited faux glare before retorting, "Not even close!" It was at least partly bravado – Ginny was also starting to feel drained, after all – but the remark gave her energy again. There was too much at stake here.

The church, surprisingly enough, was still party in tact. Clint and Steve were already waiting for them there; a moment later Tony swooped in with Thor and the Vision.

Pietro appeared beside them after a split second, giving his sister a quick hug. "Are you okay?"

Wanda nodded, before brightly adding, "Four hundred and fifty."

Pietro looked between them with a scowl. "You two are cheating, and you know it."

"It's called loophole abuse," Ginny responded with mock condescension. "I _was_ considering becoming a lawyer after leaving school. Hey! Maybe you and the old man can help each other out."

"Oh, screw you and the horse you rode in on!" Clint complained. "And since when am I old? You're only six years younger than me, you damn brats!"

Ginny snickered and the three of them rejoined the group. Bucky emerged from the shadows with Natasha right behind him. The Winter Soldier disinterestedly blasted aside a drone trying to follow them before silently taking a place behind Steve.

Natasha seemed to notice the way Ginny was looking between her and her new companion. (Yes, he had shot her once. That was going to be an awkward conversation if he stuck around to see the new Avengers Ground Base.) She pointed a finger at her friend and mouthed out, 'Don't you even think about it'.

'Think about what?' Ginny responded innocently.

"So that's the trigger?" Sam asked, landing on Steve's right.

The Captain nodded. "If even one of those drones touches it, it's game over."

"We're not gonna let that happen," Tony said with grim determination. Scattered nods followed from every other Avenger.

Thor turned to face Ultron. Ultron's face was dented pretty badly - the Hulk's work, probably – but if he was angry or getting worried, he wasn't showing it.

"Is that the best you can do?!" Thor yelled in challenge.

Ultron laughed, a deep, booming noise that made Ginny's heart sink. The robot raised his hand, and hundreds of drones appeared – even after they had smashed so many before, it was as if there was an endless supply still waiting in the wings. The massive AI controlled forces were amassing around them, surging up from the ground, surrounding the broken down steeple like a black, iron tidal wave about to crash down on the shore.

In spite of the mortal danger they were all in, Ginny slapped her forehead and sighed like Molly often had whenever the twins were so much as mention in a conversation. "Thor," she asked flatly, "have you ever heard of Murphy's Law?"

"...No?" The God of Thunder responded, sounding genuinely confused.

"...That would explain a lot."

" _This_ is the best I can do." Ultron said mockingly. "This is exactly what I wanted – all of you, verses all of _me_. How could you _possibly_ hope to stop me?"

Ginny tilted her head to the right, and calmly raised one hand. "Is there any other way this kind of day goes down?" She then gave a one fingered salute. " _Come and get us!_ "

Tony laughed. "Couldn't have said it better myself!" Hulk roared in agreement.

The iron wave fell upon them instantly afterwards. Ginny fell back to form a defensive line alongside Wanda and Natasha. _More Reducto? Well, when all you have is a hammer...!_ She unleashed another flurry of shattering attacks, and after a few seconds found herself back to back with Wanda, either ripping the machines apart or holding them immobile in the air for either the Vision, Tony or Sam to blow up with missiles. Steve and Clint were moving around the circular tower like clockwork, with Bucky watching their weak spots with an overpowered sniper rifle stolen from his captors on the way to Sokovia. Hulk, meanwhile, just jumped in where ever the fight was thickest in order to create his own personal scrap heap. Pietro would rush over to whoever needed help at a given moment and provided support.

It was probably a sign of how much time she'd been spending with Tony that all Ginny could think about when she started feeling the stress of exhaustion was, _I'm going to be feeling this tomorrow morning_.

And yet, she hadn't felt this alive since she was seventeen and taking her future back from Voldemort and his bootlickers. She had dear friends watching her back. She might even be starting to feel something she hadn't experienced since Harry, since before he broke up with her and left her on his suicidal heroic sacrifice. In fact, she finally understood those last looks they had shared on that battlefield.

 _Why are you dying?_

 _Because I have something worth dying_ for _._

She had something worth fighting for, and something worth dying for. But there was only one thing she had to say to death right now -

Not today.

"As fun as this is, I think the air here is getting thin!" Natasha said, putting a voice to this nagging concern. "Tony, I don't suppose you have a plan for that!"

"As a matter of fact -" Tony winced as a blow from Ultron Prime sent him momentarily sprawling, "-I have a way to blow up the city."

"Great!" Ginny gasped as a repulsor blast narrowly missed her head. "What do you need?!"

"Thor's help, you guys to get clear, and for someone to keep our big metal friend here busy until I can reverse the machine!" Tony read off.

Ginny took a deep breath. "Okay then! _INCENDIO!_ "

She twirled her wand twice over, and summoned a wreath of flames that exploded out around her, turning the three hundred robots surrounding her into molten slag. Then she raised her wand and cast the most powerful banishment she could muster. Ultron was thrown backwards as if yanked by strings, sending him flying through the air.

Immediately afterwards Ginny was assaulted by vertigo; she stumbled backward and would have fallen over if Pietro hadn't grabbed and steadied her. She smiled weakly at him, leaning her head against his shoulder, muttering, "I think I'm getting a bit dizzy."

"You think?" Pietro echoed sarcastically. Ginny scowled at him, but his grin took the bite out of the words.

"If Tony's going to blow this thing, we need to get lost." Clint said. "Director, are there any other civilians still on this rock?"

"Only a few; the last three ships are waiting for you. Now get a move on!"

%&%&%&%&%&

Clint helped a young blonde woman onto the last shipment. She was bleeding at the ankle, but was otherwise unharmed. Mainly she was trying to get his attention.

" _My son..._ "

Clint turned and scanned the destroyed city until he saw a kid trapped under the rubble. "I'll go get him." He promised, jumping off the transport and going to the kid's side.

He didn't see Ultron in the stolen Quinjet, but Pietro did. Just as the robot fired up the machine gun, Pietro grabbed Clint and the kid and forced them out of the way. He tensed up, waiting for the hail of bullets...even he can only react so quickly...and yet it never came.

Ginny must have teleported – she had been on another transport several dozen metres away. But she was standing between him and the bullets, hands raised. A gleaming red shield – the same one she'd used to incapacitate the Hulk – shimmered in the light.

Speaking of whom. The Hulk roared and jumped onto the Quinjet, ripping apart its wings and sending it spiraling away.

Ginny released the shield, sighed slightly and collapsed. Pietro caught her in his arms and carried her over to the ship, Clint following behind them.

Ginny blinked lethargically and looked up at him. "Pietro...?" She murmured.

"You saved my life."

"...I guess I did." She smiled slightly; the sunlight on her red hair seemed to make her glow. Pietro hadn't seen a girl so beautiful in his life. Maybe it was the adrenaline, maybe it was the madness of the day they had experienced, but he gently held her face in his hands and kissed her.

 **End Chapter**

 _ **Relationship upgrade ahead! Next time, Hermione calls Ginny back, General Ross tries to instigate Civil War but will fail epically, and Thanos is greatly made fun of!**_

 _ **Read and Review please!**_


	12. Chapter 12

**How I Spent My Vacation**

 _ **Wanda: I know it's a bit shorter, but I want to build up my new favorite confrontation - Weasley Rage vs General Ross. That, and I wanted to bring in Betty, because she really needs more love! Why did the movies just drop her, in favour of more shoehorned romances like the one with Natasha? (seriously, what was up with that?)**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the Avengers.**_

 **Chapter 12: Afterwards**

Ginny heard panicked cursing, a couple gunshots, and a familiar voice shrieking at the top of her lungs. _I...fell asleep? Well, that happens when you use too much magic at once...I'm starting to see why Poppy was always keeping Harry in the Hospital wing after his adventures._

Slowly the red haired witch sat up and blinked a few times to see the scenario unfolding before her eyes.

Bucky Barns was standing ramrod still, gun pointed at a floating scarlet letter which had two holes shot through it. "OF ALL THE NERVE – WHERE DID YOU LEARN YOUR MANNERS-?!" Tony was freaked out, pressed against the wall with his hands over his ears. "Oh god not this again!" The Vision looked as unperturbed as ever, regarding the letter with mild curiosity.

"Mom?" Ginny asked weakly, shaking her head and pressing a hand against her forehead.

Sunlight was bathing in through a massive window; she was lying on a comfortable bed in an industrial complex with grey floors and a high ceiling. She saw one of the hellicarrier's ships docked in the grassy plain outside, allowing her brain to cotton on to where she was. This must be one of the 'old tech garages' that had belonged to Tony's father, now rechristened as an Avengers base.

The Howler, upon registering its intended reciver's voice, immediately spun around and flew over to her. "GINERVA MOLLY WEASLEY! HOW DARE YOU PUT ME THROUGH THE WORRY AND PANIC I'VE BEEN EXPERIENCING FOR THE PAST TWO DAYS! THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC HAS GONE COMPLETELY INSANE, RANTING ABOUT THE BIGGEST BREACH TO THE STATUE OF SECRECY SINCE THE DARK AGES, YOUR FATHER CAME HOME TERRIFIED, AND WHAT DO I HEAR? THAT MY PRECIOUS BABY GIRL HAS GONE AND FOUND _**ANOTHER**_ MONSTEROUS EVIL TO FIGHT WITHOUT SAYING A SINGLE WORD TO ME! NO WARNINGS! NOT EVEN A, 'MOTHER, I'VE MADE SOME INTERESTING FRIENDS' THAT MIGHT SOOTHE MY CONCERNS! A FLYING CONTINENT, SOME SORT OF ARTIFICIAL LIFE TRYING TO WIPE OUT CIVILIZATION AS WE KNOW IT, AND YOU'RE IN THE THICK OF IT! HAVE YOU NO PITY FOR ME?! **DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED I'VE BEEN?!** I HAD TO FIND OUT ABOUT ALL THIS INSANITY FROM HERMIONE'S TELEVISION!"

Ginny winced slightly. "Moooom, I just woke up from my second bout of prolonged unconsciousness in two days. Could you cut me a break?" She whined, rubbing her ears.

The Howler, of course, didn't acknowledge this. "NOW, YOU'RE GOING TO STAY _RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE_ , AND I'M COMING TO YOU. I SWEAR, IF YOU SO MUCH AS GET A _PAPER CUT_ BETWEEN NOW AND WHEN I ARRIVE, I'M GOING TO GROUND YOU UNTIL YOU'RE EIGHTY-EIGHT! _**DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!**_ "

Finally spent, the Howler shredded itself.

"Yes Mum," Ginny said meekly.

"What the _hell_ was that?" Bucky asked, shaken. The Howler's shrieking had triggered wartime panic reactions he still needed time to suppress.

"That," Ginny explained with a groan, swinging her legs off the bed and onto the polished floor, "is how parents discipline unruly children in my world. We call them Howlers. My mother is particularly famous for hers."

"So that's where you got your pipes from." Tony said in a small voice. "I can see the resemblance."

"Sorry I didn't give you any warning." Ginny said with a shrug. "I should have figured mum would figure out what I was up to sooner or later. She worries too much."

"None taken," Natasha said, staring at the remains of the letter with a mixture of awe and even a little fear. That was the power of Howling Molly Weasley.

"Did I miss anything important?" Ginny asked, shifting slightly as she determined whether or not trying to stand up was a good idea.

"No, not really." Wanda said, walking in with her brother from the hallway. They had followed the yelling when the silver haired speedster had determined that the angry voice sounded similar to their witch's.

"The civilians?"

"All transferred safely to various refugee camps in America." Steve chipped in. "Fury's handling it. He said to send his regards when you woke up."

"Oh. How...uncharacteristically nice of him." Ginny said, blinking. While she was still getting acquainted with the former director of SHIELD, she had an inkling that he wasn't the type to give out that kind of praise freely.

Sure enough, Clint walked over to her and slapped her shoulder. "Feel blessed, kid. You have to go through a lot of hell to get Nick Fury to toss out a 'well done'."

"How are you feeling?" Bruce, team doctor extraordinaire, asked as he hurried over to her side. He was looking in better cheer than he had since even before this mess had started, and that was because not only had the Hulk been effectively exonerated thanks to his heroic actions saving some families on Sokovia, but his relief work on the planes had won 'Doctor Banner' the hearts of many civilians.

"Fine. Just tired." Ginny insisted, gently pushing his hand away. "It happens when you use too much magic at once. And I have _had_ a day."

"We all have," Tony said jokingly, causing a wave of laughter to pass through the various Avengers in the room.

"Do you think you can walk?" Wanda asked, walking over and offering her new friend a hand.

"I think so," Ginny affirmed, taking it and standing up. "I feel like I've been asleep for too long."

"Yeeeaaah, that's because you've been asleep for two days." Clint informed her.

Ginny went red at the face. "Ack! Seriously?!" That hadn't happened to her since _that thing_ during her first year, at which point she had slept through five instead of two.

"Yeah, that's why I was worried." Bruce explained sheepishly. "Oh, and your phone has been getting messages since this morning. It's from your friend." He handed the sleek device over to the redhead.

"Oh, _finally!_ " Ginny hissed, booting the phone up and frowning at the message list. Sure enough, all of them were from Hermione.

 _Look, Ginny – I'm really sorry. Life has been really insane._

 _I'm guessing you know about the Infinity Stones now? Given that Stark has used one to create life. Well, part of the job the Unspeakables gave me was to collect the others._

 _Are you okay? I heard about the chaos at Sokovia. I'm sorry I couldn't help...I was at the other end of the Universe. Even portkeys don't reach that far._

Clearly anticipating that Ginny wouldn't believe this, Hermione had sent a photo along that she had taken on Xandar, showing both the buildings and the alien sky.

 _I'd tell you more, but the character limit really isn't suited to the explanation. I promise, I_ swear _that I'll be back in a few days. Tops._

 _Love, your regretful and very apologetic friend_

 _Hermione Granger._

Ginny's eye twitched once, twice, and then she groaned while shutting her phone off. "Damn it, Hermione. You always know how to undercut my anger!"

"Wow. Really? I might want to take lessons in that," Pietro said teasingly, following Ginny as she stepped out of the room to formulate some sort of response to her friend's weird messages.

Ginny turned around and smiled at the boy. "Hah! Only if you're expecting to stay around me for a long time."

"I was...rather hoping for that." Pietro responded, a little uncertain though he tried to hide it. He hadn't really had the opportunity to flirt with a girl he was deeply interested in before, and the last thing he wanted was to screw this up. He tried to turn to Wanda for advice, but she'd only chuckled and told him to 'just be himself'.

How was that supposed to help? Pietro didn't have a very high opinion of himself.

"Really?" Ginny smiled playfully at him. Despite her exhaustion, she very clearly remembered being kissed as the boat flew away from Ultron's would be meteor. "I'm flattered."

Pietro laughed, vanishing and reappearing on the girl's right. Ginny spun around and chuckled; she half hoped he would sweep her up and run off with her again. It was breathtaking, for lack of a less cheesy description.

"I knew you wouldn't stay down for long. There's too much fire in you." Pietro said.

"George compared me to a machine gun. I hadn't been sure if that was a compliment until I went to Tony's party a week ago." Ginny's brow furrowed. "A week ago. Wow. That's really all it's been."

"George?"

"My older brother."

"Great...I bet you have four or five."

"I have five, actually." _I used to have six_.

Pietro winced. "Well...that could be a problem."

"And why's that?" Ginny laughed, turning towards him and putting her hands on her hips. "I'll have you know, they all fear me."

"That I don't doubt at all." Pietro said sincerely, without missing a beat.

"Good answer," Ginny responded, putting a hand on his shoulder. The two just looked at each other for a long minute, before Pietro placed a hand on top of hers and gently brushed his fingers against her palm.

"You saved my life," He said quietly.

Ginny nodded slowly. "Yeah. I did."

"Before that day...no one really cared if I lived or died, except Wanda." Pietro said honestly. "Not since I lost my parents."

"Not anymore." Ginny said firmly. "You're Avengers now. They won't leave you. _I_ won't leave you."

Pietro lightly pulled the witch girl towards him. Ginny slid her arms around his neck and kissed him, winding her fingers through his soft silver hair. Her heart was warm; she hadn't felt this way since Harry...and even Harry hadn't made her feel this way.

 **Elsewhere**

"Bruce!"

The moment he heard her voice, Bruce dropped the glass Tony had given him and spun around. He saw her running towards him, eyes bright with joy, and thought he must be dreaming – surely her father would ensure that they would never meet again –

Betty Ross crashed into him and hugged him with all her might. Tony and Steve watched, both amused and pleased to see the unstoppable Hulk wrapped up in the embrace of a beautiful, slender brunette with a cry of joy.

"Betty," Bruce gasped. "W-What are you doing here?"

Betty pulled back, kissed him on the cheek and said, "I've gotten here ahead of him. That's good. My father has completely lost his mind."

"Your father-what?" Bruce stammered, putting his hands on Betty's shoulders and looking at her with worry. "Your father's coming here?"

Betty nodded, tightening her grip on the shoulders of her loved one. "He's been making all sorts of noise since Ultron moved onto the web. He's blaming it on you and the other Avengers – he wants to use it as an excuse to turn you into soldiers for the government."

"WHAT?" Wanda spat, leaping to her feet. Her red chaos magic cackled threateningly. "Has he learned _nothing_ from HYDRA?!"

Betty scowled at this. "My father has mastered the ability of selective obliviousness." She told the other girl sourly. "He _is_ the person who created the Abomination, thinking he would be a _fabulous_ addition to the US army."

Bruce paled dramatically. Tony's eyes narrowed; he walked over and put a reassuring hand on his friend's shoulder. "We won't let him take you," He promised darkly.

"Ginny's going to flip a lid." Steve observed calmly. Tony snickered; if _Captain America_ was acknowledging this, General Ross didn't stand a chance.

"Ginny?" Betty asked curiously.

"New team member, along with Wanda and her brother." Bruce said, waving a hand towards Wanda and then towards the door. "I'll introduce you in a moment. When will your dad be here?"

There was a large crack at the door, followed by Ginny's surprised exclamation of 'Mum!'

Tony paused, and then burst out laughing. At Betty's confused expression, he explained, "Oh, your dad is about to have a _very bad day_."

 **End Chapter**

 _ **(cackles and tosses popcorn in the air) Oh, this is going to be fun.**_

 _ **Read and Review please!**_


	13. Chapter 13

**How I Spent My Vacation**

 _ **Eileen: I don't regret missing out on the Civil War movie, though it's a pity that means not seeing Black Panther or more of Bucky. I hate that plot with a burning passion. I'm sick of seeing my heroes in conflict! Read the comics! These people love (platonically) each other, have bled together, and trust each other. There's an unshakable bond there. And only the cheapest of dramas attempt to break that bond just for the shock value, and I'm SICK OF IT. Superman and Batman are practically brothers. And while they don't always agree, Steve and Tony have risked their lives for each other on many occasions. I think I'll watch Avengers: Earth's Mightest Heroes instead. (why was it cancelled?!)**_

 _ **Oh...and have Molly put that rat Ross in his place.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or The Avengers. Obviously. Because Captain America: Civil War was made.**_

 **Chapter 13: Shouting Match**

Ginny _woofed_ slightly as her mother hugged her tightly. "Hey mum. See? No paper cuts." She raised her hands for inspection.

Molly Weasley beamed, taking her daughter's hands and brushing her fingers along her arm. "Good, good." Looking up a bit, she smiled a bit and said, "I'm so proud of you, darling. You've been so brave, and you've done so much."

Ginny smiled, buoyed by the unexpected praise. "C'mon, mum. I want to introduce you to my new friends." She waved a hand in Pietro's direction. "That's Pietro. ...He's my boyfriend."

The silver haired speedster flushed slightly, but grinned and waved cheerfully after a second of thought. Molly squinted at him for a second before saying, "I see. I'll have to bring Arthur over later. Nice to meet you, young man."

"There's more," Ginny added, latching on to her mother's arm and pulling her back towards one of the main plazas. She heard Betty, Wanda and Tony all talking a moment before she came in. "Hey! Guys. This is my mum."

"Yeah, we heard." Tony said, rubbing his ear. "Uh, can we get a warning before another red letter comes in?"

Molly looked slightly abashed. "My apologies for that. I had been in a bit of a state, and since the Statue of Secrecy had already been broken I hadn't thought it wouldn't surprise you."

"Mum, this is Tony Stark. Genius! Billionaire! Font of questionable judgment!"

"Hey-!" Tony started to protest, before Steve, Wanda and Bruce all raised an eyebrow at him. "Okay, I can't really deny that."

"This is Wanda Maximoff, Pietro's twin sister." The Scarlet Witch curtsied slightly, unsure how else she might respond. Molly smiled warmly, her mothering side kicking into full gear the moment she looked the uncertain young woman in the eye.

"Steve Rogers, the Captain America..."

"Ma'am." Steve said in his sweet and charming way; Molly was instantly reminded of Arthur and made a mental note to introduce the two later on.

"And that is The Vision, the first synthetic human, created by Tony."

Molly hesitantly took a step towards the Vision and regarded him with a mixture of confusion and awe. Vision tilted his head slightly in response. "Y-you mean...you _created_ him?" She asked Tony. "you created _life_?"

"Well, technically the body was created by Ultron." Tony winced a bit whenever he acknowledged this. "He...came to life on his own. It's difficult to explain."

"Life is difficult to define," Vision agreed simply. Molly nodded in agreement, looking dazed.

"That's Bruce Banner, team doctor and anger management expert...and I'm guessing you're Betty Ross? Bruce told me a bit about you," Ginny said, waving a hand in the twosome's direction.

"Yes," Betty nodded. Bruce smiled shyly, which made him look years younger – Ginny's suspicions had been confirmed. She had barely been here with fifteen minutes and already Betty was lifting the man's spirits.

"Aaand that's Natasha Romanov and Clint Barton. Two of the four normal humans here. And Thor was here a second ago...I don't know where he is." Ginny finished off, waving vaguely out to the window. "That's James Barnes in the corner. Sam Wilson and Colonel Rhodes disappeared down to get some food. Everybody...my mom, Molly Weasley."

"Heavens," Molly exclaimed, looking between Bruce and James with visible concern. "Haven't you two been eating?"

Bruce laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head. "I, uh, sort of forgot to. Impending doom and everything." James fidgeted and didn't answer.

Molly clicked her tongue disapprovingly, already mentally planning tonight's dinner for her daughter's new friends.

"Speaking of doomsday, when do you think your father will get here Betty?" Ginny asked, her smile turning into a scowl in seconds.

"Expect him before the end of the day," Betty said tiredly.

"Sorry, what's happening?" Molly asked in confusion.

"Betty's father is a self-involved prick who wants to turn all of us into weapons for the muggle government." Ginny said sourly. Betty nodded slightly, to the flabbergasted mother's surprise – she hadn't seen such blatant scorn from a child to their parents since Percy's three year estrangement. "Not for any particularly altruistic reason, mind you. He wants tools of destruction for American militarism."

When Molly gave her daughter a puzzled look, the younger redhead explained, "Imagine a cross between Barty Crouch senior and Rufus Scrimgeour. With a hint of Umbridge, what with the 'governments must be obeyed beyond reason' logic."

"Oh. Wonderful. So we all have those." Molly said darkly. "Well, he's out of luck. My daughter is not a tool of war."

"You mean even having magic doesn't prevent people from being self involved assholes?" Clint asked. When a scowling Molly and Ginny nodded in concert, he sighed and said, "And there goes another fraction of my faith in humanity. It will be greatly missed."

Natasha rolled her eyes slightly. "And seeing bits and pieces of the Red Room's work didn't already do that?" James's head snapped towards her at the mention of the Red Room. One of his memories rose to the surface, but before he could try to speak to her, the doorbell rang and FRIDAY spoke up.

"BOSS? THERE'S A GENERAL THADDEUS ROSS AT THE DOOR..."

Tony squeezed Bruce's shoulder. "Make yourself scarce, buddy. Just in case. No one can go upstairs without a key card."

Ginny's eyes narrowed. "Let's do this."

 _ ****~Outside~****_

"General." Steve welcomed the man neutrally, as the various non military, non Vision (Ginny would much rather preserve his innocent belief in the best of humanity) and non Hulk members of the Avengers spilled out the front door to confront the man. Ross was oozing overconfidence, with only ten men with AK-47s to back him up. As if he could subdue a witch, a super soldier, a man in a metal war suit, and someone with bloody _super speed_ with a couple lousy machine guns.

That was the kind of smug self assurance that ruled half of military life.

"Captain." Ross said. "I see you've been expecting me?"

"We were warned." Tony quipped. Steve gave him a mild look, telling him to maintain a somewhat professional stance.

Ross tilted his head towards Ginny and Wanda. "So those are the witches. Good. I'd like them to come with me."

"Excuse me?" Molly said, eye twitching. Ginny smothered a grin. She knew that mild, restrained tone in her mother's voice all too well. "Why should my little girl go anywhere with you?"

"I have a proposal for Congress." Ross said. _Wow, Malfoy. I think someone stole your pompous self importance!_ "People with the capabilities possessed by the individuals in front of me are liable for any potential damages they could cause. To that end, the only appropriate place for them is among the military."

Molly stared at him in silence for a second. Pietro opened his mouth to curse the man out when Ginny tapped his arm and placed a finger in her lip. _Just watch. It will be glorious._

"I can't rightly comprehend how an intelligent person could come to that decision," Molly snapped. "Making it illegal to refuse service is called _a draft_ , and that's a monumentally _imbecilic_ thing to try to employ in _peacetime,_ and that's before you remember that there's a term for forcing people into something they don't want to be a part of – _SLAVERY!_ "

Molly stalked forward a few paces and snarled, "Let's get a few things straight here, you backwards old slave driver. I've spent half my life listening to people like you prattle on and on about _strength_ and _intimidation_ and how _only a show of force keeps the world running_ – except! ONLY A TINPOT, BACKWARDS, HEAD UP HIS ASS TYRANT THINKS THAT CONSTANTLY THREATENING WAR AND CONFLICT TOWARDS OTHER PEOPLE IS WHAT KEEPS THE PEACE!"

"The men and women standing behind me put their lives on the line, without asking for reward, without having to be asked, to rescue the thousands of citizens that lived in Sokovia. _AND BEFORE YOU PULL THAT ULTRON SHIT OUT OF YOUR BACK POCKET, ULTRON WAS A SENTIENT BEING ACCORDING TO MY DAUGHTER. NO ONE COULD CONTROL WHAT HE DID ANY MORE THAN YOU CAN BROWBEAT AND BULLY US INTO SUBMISSION."_

"But you don't understand that, because you've never had to fight like that! You get to sit comfortably in the back car, sending signals, blithely ordering people to their likely deaths so you can get what you want! It's easy to say 'sacrifices have to be made for the greater good _when you aren't the one being sacrificed!' B_ efore you start passing out judgment, I want you to take some relief trucks and try to rescue the victims of HYDRA _before_ the Avengers get there to clean up _your_ government's messes, because taking moral grandstanding from someone who was taking orders and information from Neo Nazis should only happen in _horribly ironic cartoons, AS A JOKE_!"

Ginny was so happy that Hermione had given her family some muggle history lessons. She could tell by the soldier's expressions that she was scoring some heavy points there.

" _But that isn't good enough for you,_ IS IT!? You think the only _real_ justice is the kind _you_ dish out, or else it's _obviously_ not the same – _and again, these are the same people who's intelligence agency was staffed by Neo Nazis_ – and your sheer lack of empathy towards Bruce Banner sickens me. What right do you have to treat a civilian like you have?! Hounding him to the ends of the earth for something _you did to him_ when you sabotaged his life's work _by of course, making it part of the military, because HEAVEN FORBID the United States give off the impression it's anything but a borderline military state_."

"Your sense of hypocrisy amazes me. When you tried to replicate Mr Banner's condition to make the _perfect soldier,_ you ended up creating a problem that practically _levelled_ – erm, what was that city again-?"

"Harlem," Tony chipped in, a big smirk on his face. Even Steve was grinning slightly.

"-Thank you, Mr Stark – Harlem. A city _you are supposed to protect!_ You'd think that would be a big enough point that you should quit your meddling, but _no,_ that wasn't obvious enough, was it? Though of course, if the fact that Mr Banner only transformed when you and your squad of sadistic bloodthirsty brutes tried to torture him or fill him with lead, why would that mean anything to you?"

"Perhaps you are a HYDRA agent, Mister Ross. After all, wasn't their motto that Humanity can't be trusted with its own Freedom? You just have to give up silly things like personal autonomy and obey the military state like a mindless drone, _and you're free_. But it's okay if _you_ do it, because you _obviously_ have our best interests in mind, don't you?"

Molly snorted. "And I thought only _children_ employed that sort of mindset. I thought only children jumped at the shadows, creating elaborate and dangerous traps to protect themselves from imaginary danger. I thought only children were afraid of the evil monster lurking under their bed. Then I look at you, and _clearly_ I was wrong.

Because you see monsters where there are only _people_."

Natasha clicked the 'stop recording' button on her phone, which she had pulled out when Molly started talking. "I think I have the perfect video for Fury's memorial page," She said with a smirk.

Before any of the general's men could attempt to stop her, she went straight to facebook and brought the video up. While she usually disdained social media, the Black Widow couldn't deny its usefulness in situations like this. "And...uploaded!"

General Ross turned so red he became purple, giving him an uncanny resemblance to the late Mister Dursley. In retrospect, Ginny found such a comparison quite appropriate, and she wondered how on earth this man contributed to the birth of Betty, a kind, gentle and empathetic person. _Clearly she took after her mum._

 ** _End Chapter_**

 ** _(CACKLES) That was fun._**

 ** _Anyway, next time, Hermione returns to Earth with Loki in tow to tie up the loose ends, awkward but sincere apologies and forgiveness are offered and given from multiple people, and an engagement ring emerges. (that will be my secret for a while!)_**

 ** _Read and Review please!_**


	14. Chapter 14

**How I Spent My Vacation**

 _ **Wanda: My god, I have a relatively short and self contained story that didn't go running off in weird directions! I can't believe I actually pulled that off! I'm sorry if the ending is short, I still suck at making good endings, but I hope that it doesn't bother you too much.**_

 ** _Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the Marvel Cinematic Universe._**

 **Chapter 14: All's Well that Ends Well**

The dinner was very lavish, cooked primarily by Molly at her own insistence. Arthur, Bill, George and Charlie arrived by portkey an hour earlier to meet Ginny's new friends. Which was surprisingly pertinent, since Hermione and Loki Odinson both turned up just before dinner began in earnest.

What would have been a horribly awkward meeting was defused by Hermione, who finally explained to Ginny why she had been absent. The Unspeakables had been collecting, and destroying, the Infinity Stones that had been sublty manipulating the universe...so they could 'harvest' it to gain more power by eventually causing Ragnarock. They had corrupted a simple, weak being called Thanos, who in turn had used the Mind Stone to control several other carriers.

These carriers included Loki, who had been brainwashed after landing half dead in what was essentially Thanos's back yard.

Hermione had used a new creation called the Ultima Time Turner to retrieve the Aether. Along the way, she managed to rescue Queen Frigga via a quickly transported body double, earning herself the gratitude of her adopted son. Loki had then offered to help her collect the gems, and during their journeys they found they had a lot in common. This realization eventually blossomed into a relationship they were both quite happy with.

Ginny was, indeed, extremely pissed off that she had been left out of it, despite Hermione insisting that it had basically been a glorified Fetch Quest. Once she was done ranting, however, Ginny had forgiven her friend, and introduced her to the rest of the Avengers.

Loki's reintroduction probably could have gone smoother, but James Barnes was almost immediately accommodating and friendly (considering how quiet he was), the two hitting it off fairly well.

Thor, at least, had been very happy to see his brother.

Dinner itself was a lovely affair. Bruce, with a friendly (read – sudden and almighty) shove from his Science Bro Tony, proposed to Betty! The woman was so happy she tackled him to the ground in a hug, which was quite a feat considering she was light and not very physically strong.

Wanda seemed utterly fascinated by The Vision, standing by his side and asking him all sorts of questions. Vision seemed slightly flattered by her interest, though probably not quite getting it – technically, he was born yesterday.

Tony, meanwhile, was very amused to be fielding Arthur's eager questions about muggle technology, eventually offering to show him around Stark Tower. The genius mused that, in time, he and Arthur may be able to create Magitek, which would put mankind on nearly the same level as the Asgardians.

Natasha talked with James whenever he wasn't talking to Steve or Loki. Apparently there was a bit of history there. If Ginny didn't know any better, she swore that the red haired spy was flirting with the former Winter Soldier.

Ginny introduced Pietro to her whole family. Charlie and George took an instant liking to him, while Bill was less impressed but willing to give the silver haired speedster a shot. Auntie Muriel was appalled that Ginny was dating a 'strange muggle', but since when did they care about her opinion? Ginny was quite happy about it, and Wanda liked Charlie and George's pranking tendencies. And as Pietro said, "anyone who makes my sister laugh is good in my book'.

Steve and Arthur got along well, just as Molly predicted. Sam Wilson quickly established a rapport with Bill, with the two exchanging stories from work long after they'd finished eating. Clint and Laura swapped parenting nightmares with Molly over dinner, much to the children's mortification.

The main problem – Ginny's effective demolition of the Statue of Secrecy – went over better than one might have expected. At least, when you have Nick Fury on your side.

When Draco Malfoy, Minister hopeful, stomped in with a bunch of Obliviators to 'haul Ginny in' for her breach, he got a complete verbal asskicking from the thoroughly unimpressed ex Director of Shield. "You have a government that makes third world countries laugh, you employ war criminals, you have sensibilities stuck in the medival era, and you call _us_ savage? I suggest you get your gear in order, or we'll be sending some _actual_ politicians to straighten out your nightmare of a country."

"...Could _you_ be in charge?" Charlie asked hopefully.

Fury snorted. "You couldn't _pay_ me to do that. I don't have the patience."

"That's a terrifying thought."

"Shut up, Stark."

Ginny and Pietro snickered in concert. "Stark isn't so bad after all," Her boyfriend remarked.

"I told you."

"Right. The lady's always right, can't forget that."

Ginny slugged him in the shoulder. Pietro playfully winced before brushing her hair away from her face. "Still think this is your worst vacation ever?"

Ginny smiled radiantly at him. "Maybe. But it has my favourite ending."

 **End**

 _ **Thank you for reading!**_

 _ **Read and Review please!**_


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